Abstract
Previous studies indicated that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit immunomodulatory properties in composite tissue allotransplantation. However, due to the high immunogenicity of skin, although the single administration of MSCs improves survival of the skin allotransplant, immune rejection is still inevitable. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether multiple administrations of MSCs would improve immune tolerance in the allogeneic skin graft, compared to that with a single administration in a mouse model. After full-thickness skin allotransplantation on the backs of the mice, the recipient mice were infused with phosphate-buffered saline and isogenic 1.5 × 105/mL adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). ADSCs were transplanted into different mice according to the different injection frequencies such as single, once a week, and twice a week. Skin sections were taken on days 7 and 21 post-transplantation in all groups for gene expression and histological studies. ADSCs increased skin allograft survival compared to that in control mice (P < 0.05). Interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha messenger RNA levels were decreased, and the abundance of lymphocytes, based on immunohistochemistry, was also decreased in ADSC-infused mice (P < 0.05). However, among the different ADSC injection frequency groups, multiple ADSC infusion did not improve the survival rate and decreased proinflammatory cytokines and lymphocytes, compared to those with the single administration of ADSCs (P > 0.05). Conversely, the results with single administration were slightly better than those with multiple administrations. Our study demonstrated that ADSCs have the potential for immunomodulation in vivo. However, the results with multiple ADSC administration were not as good as those with single administration, which indicates the complexity of ADSCs in vivo and implying the need for adequate preclinical experimentation.