The effect of stem cell from human exfoliated deciduous teeth on T lymphocyte proliferation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), a specific type of adult tissue stem cell; have the immunosuppressive effects that make them valuable targets for regenerative medicine and treatment of many human illnesses. Hence, MSC have been the subject of numerous studies. The classical source of MSC is adult bone marrow (BM). Due to many shortcomings of harvesting MSC from BM, finding the alternative sources for MSC is an urgent. Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) are relative new MSC populations that fulfill these criteria but their potential immunosuppressive effect has not been studied enough yet. Thus, in this work the effect of SHED on the proliferation of in vitro activated T lymphocytes were explored.

In this study, both mitogen and alloantigen activated T cells were cultured in the presence of different numbers of SHED. In some co-cultures, activated T cells were in direct contact to MSCs and in other co-cultures; they were separated from SHED by a permeable membrane. In all co-cultures, the proliferation of T cells was measured by ELISA Bromodeoxyuridine proliferation assay.

In general, our results showed that SHED significantly suppress the proliferation of activated T cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the suppression was slightly stronger when MSCs were in physical contact to activated T cells.

This study showed that SHED likewise other MSC populations can suppress the activation of T lymphocytes, which can be used instead of BM derived MSCs in many investigational and clinical applications.