Mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in experimental animal models

Table 1 Immunomodulatory effect of mesenchymal stromal cells in animal disease models

Disease model	Anti-inflammatory MSC effects	Negative/neutral studies?
Type 1 diabetes	↑ Regulatory T cells[15-17,19] ↓ Inflammatory T cells[16,17] TH1 → TH2[16,19] ↑ Tissue repair[18-20]	None reported
Pancreatic islet transplantation	↑ Islet survival[22-24] ↑ Regulatory T cells[22,24] ↓ TH1 cytokines[22] ↓ T cell responsiveness[23]	None reported
Experimental autoimmune arthritis	↓ Inflammatory cytokines[27,29-31] ↑ Regulatory T cells[27,28,30,34] ↓ T cell responsiveness[27] ↑ IL-10[28-30] ↓ TH1/TH17 cells[28,30] ↑ TH2 cells[30,34]	No suppression[31-33]
Graft-vs-host disease	↓ Auto-antibodies[38] ↓ Inflammatory cytokines[39,42,44,53] ↑ Regulatory T cells[40] ↓ T cell proliferation[44] ↓ TH1 cells[49]	Prevented disease, but no effect after disease onset[43,47] No suppression[48,50,51] Reduced pathology but no effect on survival[49]
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis	↓ T cell responsiveness[58] ↓ CNS infiltration[59-61,64,68] ↓ Auto-antibodies[59] ↓ Inflammatory cytokines[60,64,68] TH1 → TH2[61] ↓ TH17 cells[64]	None reported
Inflammatory bowel disease	↓ Inflammatory T cells[72,73,78] ↓ Inflammatory cytokines[72-76] ↑ Anti-inflammatory cytokines[72-75,78] ↓ Intestinal CD4+ T cell infiltration[72-74] ↑ Regulatory T cells[72-75,78] ↓ Growth factor expression[76] ↑ FasL-mediated T cell apoptosis[78] ↓ T cell responsiveness[73]	None reported
Systemic lupus erythematosus	↓ Anti-DNA antibodies[82-85] ↑ Regulatory T cells[82] ↓ T cell frequency[83] ↓ TH17 cells[82] ↓ Plasma cells[82] ↓ Inflammatory cytokines[85] ↑ Anti-inflammatory cytokines[85]	Worsened disease, increased auto-antibodies[87]
Experimental autoimmune uveitis	↓ Inflammatory cytokines[93-95] ↑ IL-10[93,94] ↑ Regulatory T cells[92-95] ↓ Inflammatory T cells[95] ↓ TH1 cells[93] ↓ TH17 cells[93,95] ↑ IL-10-producing B cells[93]	Not effective late in disease course, but effective before and shortly after disease onset[94]

MSC: Mesenchymal stromal cell.