(Press-News.org) Putnam Valley, NY. (July 14, 2015) - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that produces autoantibodies and subsequent immune reactions that can lead to a variety of symptoms, including inflammation of the kidneys, or nephritis. When researchers transplanted mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human bone marrow into mice modeled with SLE, they found that inflammation was reduced and nephritis "attenuated." They suggested that their study revealed a "novel mechanism" by which the MSCs can regulate the progression of autoimmune diseases such as SLE.
"SLE can be refractory to traditional treatments and be life threatening, especially when major organs are invaded" said Dr. Jeehee Youn, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University . "Our study suggests that MSCs suppress the development of cells that help activate the immune components."
Their study that will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1387_Jang_et_al
The researchers noted that the damaging antibodies in SLE are produced with the help of follicular T helper (Tfh) cells. They found that
MSCs worked to slow the progression of lupus nephritis by suppressing the emergence of the Tfh cells in the mice modeled with SLE. They speculated that, since MSCs are known to differ functionally depending on their microenvironment, they are not naturally immunosuppressant, but require a "licensing step" provided by pro-inflammatory molecules.
"The immodulatory potential of MSCs, along with their low immunogenicity, seems to offer a promising treatment for severe refractory autoimmune diseases," concluded Dr. Youn.
"Though the survival rate for patients diagnosed with SLE is improving, there is still no cure and risk of fatality is still a concern. Currently, the disease is treated by immunosuppression, achieved by the administration of immunosuppressants that can cause deleterious side effects," said Dr. Maria Carolina de Oliveira Rodrigues of the University of São Paulo, Brazil and section editor for Cell Transplantation. "Stem cell therapy is an attractive treatment option in that it is associated with fewer side effects than pharmacotherapy and, as the researchers suggested, it may actually slow the progression of the disease rather than merely alleviate symptom severity. Before transplantation of MSCs or any other type of cell therapy can be implemented in medical practice, further studies should evaluate whether the risk of immune rejection of the cells, if not autologous, would necessitate concomitant treatment with immunosuppressants."
INFORMATION:
Contact: Dr. Jeehee Youn, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Hangyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Sungdong-gu, Seoul 133-701 Korea.
Email: jhyoun@hangyang.ac.kr
Tel: +82-2-2220-0604
Fax: +82-2-2281-7841
Citation: Jang, E.; Jeong, M.; Kim, S.; Jang, K.; Kang, B.-K.; Lee, D. Y.; Bae, S.-C.; Kim, K. S.; Youn, J. Infusion of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells alleviates autoimmune nephritis in a lupus model by suppressing follicular helper T cell development. Cell Transplant. Appeared or available on-line: May 13, 2015.
The Coeditors-in-chief for CELL TRANSPLANTATION are at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Center for Neuropsychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, TaiChung, Taiwan. Contact, Camillo Ricordi, MD at ricordi@miami.edu or Shinn-Zong Lin, MD, PhD at shinnzong@yahoo.com.tw or David Eve, PhD or Samantha Portis, MS, at celltransplantation@gmail.com
HOUSTON - (July 14, 2015) - From 2004 to 2010 in Texas, mental illness was the most common reason for the hospitalization of children ages 10-14 while pregnancy/birth was the most common reason for the hospitalization of adolescents ages 15-17, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School.
The results were published in the July issue of Hospital Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"We were surprised by those two findings and the related costs in millions of dollars," said Bethanie ...
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research is revealing details about how the exoskeleton of a certain type of deep-sea shrimp allows the animal to survive scalding hot waters in hydrothermal vents thousands of feet under water.
"A biological species surviving in that kind of extreme environment is a big deal," said Vikas Tomar, an associate professor in Purdue University's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "And shrimp are a great test case for evolution because you can find different species all over the world living at various depths and with a range of adaptation requirements."
He ...
DURHAM, N.C. -- Hypervigilance to hostility in others triggers aggressive behavior in children, says a new Duke University-led study.
The four-year longitudinal study involving 1,299 children and their parents finds the pattern holds true in 12 different cultural groups from nine countries across the globe.
This pattern is more common in some cultures than others, which helps explain why some cultures have more aggressive behavior problems in children than other cultures, according to the study.
The findings, published online Monday in Proceedings of the National ...
MADISON, Wis. -- A diet that starves triple-negative breast cancer cells of an essential nutrient primes the cancer cells to be more easily killed by a targeted antibody treatment, UW Carbone Cancer Center scientists report in a recent publication.
The study's senior author, Vincent Cryns, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says the study lays the foundation for a clinical trial to see if a low-methionine diet will help improve outcomes in women with "triple-negative" breast cancer.
Methionine is an essential amino ...
Scientists have designed nanoparticles that release drugs in the presence of a class of proteins that enable cancers to metastasize. That is, they have engineered a drug delivery system so that the very enzymes that make cancers dangerous could instead guide their destruction.
"We can start with a small molecule and build that into a nanoscale carrier that can seek out a tumor and deliver a payload of drug," said Cassandra Callmann, a graduate student in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and first author of the report published in ...
NEW YORK, NY (July 14, 2015) - A plan to ensure that evidence-based psychosocial interventions are routinely used in clinical practice and made a part of clinical training for mental health professionals was released today by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
The NAM report, titled, "Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders," points to a strong need to strengthen evidence on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, and to develop guidelines and quality measures for implementing these interventions in professional practice. Though ...
Fibromyalgia is almost impossible to diagnose. The chronic pain syndrome strikes an estimated 1 in 70 Americans, most of them women. The disorder is often triggered by head trauma, a neurological infection, or severe emotional stress, and is characterized by symptoms such as musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, memory loss and mood swings. Fibromyalgia is often mistaken for other culprits and most patients suffer months, even years, of unrelenting pain before being properly diagnosed. And once diagnosed, patients enjoy little respite because few therapies have been found to be ...
Case Western Reserve researchers already demonstrated that a single protein plays a pivotal role in the use of nutrients by major organs that allow for the burning of fat during exercise or regulating the heart's contractile and electrical activity. Now they have found a new benefit of Kruppel-like Factor 15 (KLF15) -- keeping the body in metabolic balance.
The discovery, which highlights how KLF15 affects the availability of nutrients in the body, may also have significant implications for scientists' ability to understand ways that the body metabolizes different medications. ...
July 13, 2015 --Regardless of family income, children on summer break consume more sugar, watch more television, and eat fewer vegetables than the rest of the year, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Findings are published online in the Journal of School Health.
The research was based on data from U.S. children in grades 1-12 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2008. The sample consisted of 6453 children and adolescents, some surveyed during the school year and others during a school break.
The ...
Liuzijue qigong (LQG) is a set of meditative movement and breathing patterns practiced by more than 100 million people in China. In a new Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in remission who were randomized to LQG demonstrated marked improvements in their lung function, general health, mental health, and quality of life after 6 months compared with patients randomized to a control group.
The LQG program consisted of four 45-minute sessions each week and daily walking for 30 minutes. Control participants ...
