Therapeutic Potential of Syngeneic Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Established form of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Background and Using allogeneic and xenogeneic mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has had some successful results in the treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). But the use of its syngeneic counterparts in treatment of EAE, especially established EAE, has had some paradoxical results. This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of syngeneic bone marrow-derived MSCs (SBM-MSCs) in a mouse model of EAE. In this experimental-interventional study, one million SBM-MSCs were injected to EAE–affected C57BL/6 mice in two different times. The clinical symptoms of treated mice were evaluated daily and scored according to a standard scale. A week after the last injection all EAE mice were sacrificed for cytokine and histopathological assays. SBM-MSCs could not ameliorate clinical course of EAE mice. Although SBM-MSCs could attenuate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ from the splenocytes of EAE mice, but they had no effect on the production of IL-17. Nonetheless, the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-4 and IL-10, had increased due to SBM-MSCs treatment. Finally, SBM-MSCs had no positive effect on immune cells infiltration and myelin destruction rate in the central nervous system of EAE mice. SBM-MSCs had probably no ameliorative effect on established form of EAE.