1. Academic Validation
  2. Small extracellular vesicles derived from human mesenchymal stem cells prevent Th17-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation via immunoregulation on Th17 cells

Small extracellular vesicles derived from human mesenchymal stem cells prevent Th17-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation via immunoregulation on Th17 cells

  • Int Immunopharmacol. 2024 May 30:133:112126. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2024.112126.
Bi-Xin He 1 Shu-Bing Fang 1 Ying-Chun Xie 1 Dong-Xiao Lou 2 Zi-Cong Wu 2 Chan-Gu Li 2 Xiao-Qing Liu 1 Zhi-Rou Zhou 1 Long-Xin Huang 1 Tian Tian 1 De-Hua Chen 1 Qing-Ling Fu 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Division of Allergy, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
  • 2 Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Extracellular Vesicle Research and Clinical Translational Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
  • 3 Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Division of Allergy, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Extracellular Vesicle Research and Clinical Translational Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. Electronic address: fuqingl@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
Abstract

Type 17 helper T cells (Th17)-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation is critical in the pathogenesis of steroid-resistant airway inflammation such as severe asthma. Small extracellular vesicles (sEV) derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) display extensive therapeutic effects and advantages in many diseases. However, the role of MSC-sEV in Th17-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation and the related mechanisms are still poorly studied. Here we found that MSC-sEV significantly alleviated the infiltration of inflammatory cells in peribronchial interstitial tissues and reduced levels of inflammatory cells, especially neutrophils, in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) of mice with neutrophilic airway inflammation. Consistently, MSC-sEV significantly decreased levels of IL-17A in BALF and Th17 in lung tissues. Furthermore, we found that labelled MSC-sEV were taken up by human CD4+ T cells most obviously at 12 h after incubation, and distributed mostly in mouse lungs. More importantly, potential signaling pathways involved in the MSC-sEV mediated inhibition of Th17 polarization were found using RNA Sequencing. Using Western blot, JAK2-STAT3 pathway was identified as an important role in the inhibition of Th17 polarization by MSC-sEV. We found that proteins in MSC-sEV were mostly involved in the therapeutic effects of MSC-sEV. In total, our study suggested that MSC-sEV could be a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neutrophilic airway inflammation.

Keywords

Extracellular vesicles; Immunoregulation; Mesenchymal stem cells; Neutrophilic airway inflammation; Type 17 helper cells.

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