Objective: To study the immunogenicity of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and the suppression ability to the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) during osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic differentiations.
Methods: BMSCs were isolated from bone marrow of healthy donors and were induced to osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic differentiations for 7, 14, and 21 days. The expressions of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and class II were detected by flow cytometry. PBMC were isolated from peripheral blood of healthy donors and were co-cultured with BMSCs at a ratio of 10:1 for 5 days. The suppression ability of undifferentiated and differentiated BMSCs to proliferation of PBMC were detected by flow cytometry.
Results: The HLA class I expression was observed but almost no expression of HLA class II was seen in undifferentiated BMSCs. There was no obviously change of the HLA class I and class II expressions during osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiations (P > 0.05), and a low expression of HLA class II was kept. The HLA class I expression gradually increased at 14 and 21 days after adipogenic differentiation, showing significant differences when compared with the value at 0 and 7 days (P < 0.05); the HLA class II expression also gradually increased at 7, 14, and 21 days after adipogenic differentiation, showing significant differences when compared with the value at 0 day (P < 0.05). There was no proliferation of PBMC without the stimulation of CD3 and CD28 microspheres and significant proliferation was observed when CD3 and CD28 microspheres were added, and undifferentiated BMSCs could significantly inhibit the proliferation of PBMC. There was no obvious change of the ability of BMSCs to inhibit the proliferation of PBMC during osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiations (P > 0.05); and the ability of BMSCs to inhibit the proliferation of PBMC was gradually weakened at 7, 14, and 21 days after adipogenic differentiation, showing significant differences among different time points (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: BMSCs maintain low immunogenicity and strong immune suppression ability during osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiations, which are suitable for allogenic tissue engineering repair and cell transplantation. However, increased immunogenicity and decreased immune suppression ability after adipogenic differentiation may not be suitable for allogenic tissue engineering repair and cell transplantation.