title: Stro-1-positive human mesenchymal stem cells prolong skin graft survival in mice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and its stromal cell antigen 1 Stro-1 positive (Stro-1(+)) subgroup possess immunosuppressive properties. Our objective was to evaluate the in vivo inhibitory effect of MSCs and the Stro-1 subset.
  
  
  METHODS
  Isolated human MSCs from bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells of healthy adults, and Stro-1(+) cells were cultured before sorting. Female C57BL/6 mice and female BALB/c mice were used as donors and recipients in an allogeneic skin graft model, respectively. The recipients were divided randomly into 4 groups: (1) The Stro-1(+) MSCs group received 2 × 10(6) Stro-1(+) MSCs injected into irradiated recipients before skin grafting. (2) The MSC group (2 × 10(6)) injected into the irradiated recipient mice before skin grafting. (3) The irradiated control group just irradiated before skin grafting. (4) The syngenic control group included irradiated BALB/c mice that received skin from syngenic mice. The main data included skin graft survival times, histologic changes on hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and plasma transforming growth factor (TGF)-β concentrations in recipients measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) before and after transplantation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The skin graft survival time in the MSCs group (12.13 ± 3.34 days) was not significantly prolonged versus the irradiated controls (11.38 ± 1.01 days), but it was notably prolonged among the Stro-1(+) MSCs group (30.68 ± 5.89 days) compared with the irradiated control and the MSCs groups, respectively. The histology of skin grafts among the stro-1(+) group showed a clear structure. After grafting, plasma TGF-β concentrations were almost the same as before transplantation among the irradiated and the syngenic controls but significantly increased in the MSCs and Stro-1(+) MSCs groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stro-1(+) MSCs induced greater prolongation of skin grafts in mice than unsorted MSCs; however, TGF-β expression did not contribute to this effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin, China. yizhuozhang@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000378:metabolism*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D013997:Time Factors; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000097:blood; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation
chemical_list: D000954:Antigens, Surface; D015415:Biomarkers; C525591:STRO-1 antigen, human; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta