All Stroma Immune Suppressive

London, UK -

The immune suppressive properties of mesenchymal stem cells has led to numerous scientific publications, as well as exploration in clinical cases of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

In a recent paper (Jones et al. The antiproliferative effect of mesenchymal stem cells is a fundamental property shared by all stromal cells. J Immunol. 2007 Sep 1;179(5):2824-31) it was suggested that the immune inhibiting activities of mesenchymal stem cells are not mediated only by mesenchymal stem cells, but can be mediated by more mature mesenchymal sources.

The authors experimented with stromal cells derived from a variety of adult tissues (fibroblasts from synovial joints, lung, and skin) and showed that they had similar abilities to inhibit T cell activation as mesenchymal stem cells did.

If it is really that easy, maybe we don't need to take out bone marrow but can use skin cells for generation of autologous immune modulatory cells.