Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic autoimmune disorder. In this study, we first compared the therapeutic effects of syngeneic and xenogeneic adipose tissue-derived stem cells on a collagen-induced arthritis mouse model. Second, we investigated the synergistic preventive effects of CTLA4Ig and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ASCs) as a therapeutic substance.
Arthritis was induced in all groups except for the normal, saline (N) group, using chicken type II collagen (CII). Animals were divided into C (control, saline), H (hASCs), M (mASCs) and N groups (experiment I) and C, H, CT (CTLA4Ig-overexpressing human ASC [CTLA4Ig-hASCs]) and N groups (experiment II), according to transplanted material. Approximately 2 × 10(6) ASCs or 150 μL of saline was intravenously administered on days 24, 27, 30 and 34, and all animals were killed on days 42 to 44 after CII immunization.
Anti-mouse CII autoantibodies were significantly lower in the H, M and CT groups than in the C group. Cartilage damage severity score and C-telopeptide of type II collagen were significantly lower in the CT group than in the C group. The serum levels of IL-6 were significantly lower in the H, M and CT groups than in the C group. The serum levels of keratinocyte chemoattractant were significantly lower in the CT group than the C group.
There were similar effects of ASCs on the decrease of anti-mouse CII autoantibody levels between syngeneic and xenogeneic transplantations, and CTLA4Ig-hASCs showed synergistic preventive effects compared with non-transduced hASCs.