Mesenchymal stem cells alleviate rat diabetic nephropathy by suppressing CD103 DCs-mediated CD8 T cell responses.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) as a kind of serious microvascular complication of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) usually causes the end-stage of renal disease (ESRD). Studies have demonstrated that CD103 dendritic cells (DCs) exhibited a renal pathogenic effect in murine chronic kidney disease (CKD). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can alleviate DN and suppress the DCs maturation. To explore the role of CD103 DCs and the potential mechanisms underlying MSCs-mediated protective effects in DN, we used bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) to treat DN rats. MSCs transplantation considerably recovered kidney function and diminished renal injury, fibrosis and the population of renal CD103 DCs in DN rat. The MSCs-treated DN rats had decreased mRNA expression levels of interleukin (IL)1β, IL6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and reduced CD8 T cell infiltration in the kidney. MSCs significantly down-regulated the genes expression of transcription factors (Basic leucine zipper transcriptional factor ATF-like 3, Batf3 and DNA-binding protein inhibitor ID-2, Id2) and FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (Flt3) which are necessary for CD103 DCs development. The protective effect of MSCs may be partly related to their immunosuppression of CD8 T cell proliferation and activation mediated by CD103 DCs in the kidney of DN rats.