Dose and Timing Limitations in the Use of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Experimental Arthritis

The recently recognized potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to differentiate into a broad spectrum of tissues and to act as immune regulators beyond the barriers of embryonic germ layers and major histocombatibility comlex (MHC) restriction, has emerged intense research interest on their possible use in a broad spectrum of clinical entities. Although the immunoregulatory potential of MSCs has been shown to effectively control GvHD in several preclinical and clinical studies, their role in autoimmune diseases has not been extensively explored in animal models. The goal of this study was to investigate the in vitro effect of rat bone marrow-derived MSCs on cultured fibrobIast-like synoviocytes (FLS) and T-cells from the spleen after induction of adjuvant arthritis (AA) by FCA as well as their in vivo effect in a rat model of AA resembling human rheumatoid arthritis. MSCs were isolated from bone marrow and were characterized by CD45 negativity and CD54, CD29 positivity in FCM analysis. Differentiation assays were performed to confirm their adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic potential. Culture of AA-FLS in the presence of supernatant from syngeneic (syng) or allogeneic (allo) MSCs at passage 2–3, reduced the AA-FLS (p