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Many studies have been performed about regenerative and immunomodulatory properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their application in different treatment approaches. The present study aimed to investigate the immunomodulatory effect of umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) on the gene expression profile of cytokines in stimulated T-lymphocytes. For this purpose, MSCs were isolated from umbilical cord blood samples and cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. The nature of MSCs was identified by flow cytometry analysis and differentiation to the adipocyte and osteocyte lineage. Moreover, to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of MSCs on T cells, a co-culture system was designed and expression levels of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) genes were measured; using the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Our results demonstrated the ability of MSCs to differentiate into adipocyte and osteocyte lineages. Further investigation also displayed that although UCB-MSCs could significantly reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-2, IL-6, IFN-γ, and TNF-α in activated T-lymphocytes, they noticeably potentiated the expression levels of IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, and TGF-β in the co-culture setting. In conclusion, UCB-MSCs have immunomodulatory effects on activated T-lymphocytes in favor of anti-inflammatory responses.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS), an autoinflammatory disease, has been associated with impaired Endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase (ERAP) 1 activity, which is involved in priming antigenic peptides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if the genetic variant of ERAP1 gene could impress the inflammation status of the AS patients. For genotyping, 140 AS cases and 140 healthy controls were enrolled. After isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and DNA extraction, all the subjects were genotyped for rs27044 polymorphism using SSP-PCR assay. Total RNA of PBMCs was isolated, cDNA was synthesized, and quantitative analyses of mRNA expression of cytokines were performed via Real-time PCR using the SYBR Green Gene Expression MasterMix. To measure the concentration of cytokines in serum of subjects, Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used. It was observed that the G allele of rs27044 polymorphism was significantly prevalent in AS patients. Moreover, the GG genotype and the GG+GC dominant model had significantly different distribution between study groups. There was a significant overexpression of mRNAs of IL-17A, IL-6, IL-33, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, while IL-10 was significantly downregulated in AS patients. The ELISA results were in line with that of the gene expression analysis. No significant differences in mRNA expression and concentration of cytokine were identified among AS patients with three genotypes for rs27044 SNP. This study replicated the association of polymorphisms in ERAP1 gene with the risk of AS in a population from Iranian. However, it did not directly determine the inflammatory profile of the AS patients.