Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Division of Allergy, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Extracellular Vesicle Research and Clinical Translational Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2024 May 30;133:112126. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2024.112126. Epub 2024 Apr 25.
Type 17 helper T cells (Th17)-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation is critical in the pathogenesis of steroid-resistant airway inflammation such as severe asthma. Small extracellular vesicles (sEV) derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) display extensive therapeutic effects and advantages in many diseases. However, the role of MSC-sEV in Th17-dominant neutrophilic airway inflammation and the related mechanisms are still poorly studied. Here we found that MSC-sEV significantly alleviated the infiltration of inflammatory cells in peribronchial interstitial tissues and reduced levels of inflammatory cells, especially neutrophils, in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) of mice with neutrophilic airway inflammation. Consistently, MSC-sEV significantly decreased levels of IL-17A in BALF and Th17 in lung tissues. Furthermore, we found that labelled MSC-sEV were taken up by human CD4 T cells most obviously at 12 h after incubation, and distributed mostly in mouse lungs. More importantly, potential signaling pathways involved in the MSC-sEV mediated inhibition of Th17 polarization were found using RNA sequencing. Using Western blot, JAK2-STAT3 pathway was identified as an important role in the inhibition of Th17 polarization by MSC-sEV. We found that proteins in MSC-sEV were mostly involved in the therapeutic effects of MSC-sEV. In total, our study suggested that MSC-sEV could be a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neutrophilic airway inflammation.
17 型辅助性 T 细胞(Th17)主导的中性粒细胞性气道炎症在类固醇抵抗性气道炎症(如严重哮喘)的发病机制中至关重要。源自人骨髓间充质干细胞(MSCs)的小细胞外囊泡(sEV)在许多疾病中显示出广泛的治疗效果和优势。然而,MSC-sEV 在 Th17 主导的中性粒细胞性气道炎症中的作用及其相关机制仍研究甚少。在这里,我们发现 MSC-sEV 可显著减轻中性粒细胞性气道炎症小鼠支气管周围间质组织中炎症细胞的浸润,并降低支气管肺泡灌洗液(BALF)中炎症细胞,特别是中性粒细胞的水平。一致地,MSC-sEV 显著降低了 BALF 中的 IL-17A 和肺组织中的 Th17 水平。此外,我们发现孵育 12 小时后,标记的 MSC-sEV 被人 CD4 T 细胞摄取最多,并且主要分布在小鼠肺部。更重要的是,通过 RNA 测序发现了涉及 MSC-sEV 介导的 Th17 极化抑制的潜在信号通路。通过 Western blot 检测,我们发现 JAK2-STAT3 通路在 MSC-sEV 抑制 Th17 极化中起着重要作用。我们发现 MSC-sEV 中的蛋白主要参与 MSC-sEV 的治疗效果。总之,我们的研究表明 MSC-sEV 可能是治疗中性粒细胞性气道炎症的一种潜在治疗策略。