International Journal of Molecular Sciences

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Dear Colleagues,

Inflammatory diseases include a vast array of disorders characterized by inflammation, ranging from asthma and autoimmune pathologies up to fibrotic diseases. Fibrosis is in fact defined as a pathological feature of most chronic inflammatory diseases. Among fibrotic diseases, pulmonary fibrosis deserves particular attention. In recent decades, scientific has research tried to address the question of the role of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on inflammatory and fibrotic diseases; MSCs are able to modulate the inflamed microenvironment by secreting pro- and/or anti-inflammatory cytokines. The link between MSCs and inflammation is actually still debated: In different models, it has been observed that MSCs can sustain or counteract inflammation.

New insights about MSCs/inflammation/fibrotic diseases are requested to improve the knowledge of the mechanisms regulating these pathologies and to focus on the potential therapeutic role of MSCs.

Prof. Dr. Monia Orciani
Guest Editor

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

18 pages, 4147 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synergic Effect of Early Administration of Probiotics and Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Alleviating Inflammation-Induced Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Rodents

by Kuan-Hung Chen, Hung-Sheng Lin, Yi-Chen Li, Pei-Hsun Sung, Yi-Ling Chen, Tsung-Cheng Yin and Hon-Kan Yip

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(19), 11974; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911974 - 9 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1835

Abstract

This study investigated the hypothesis that probiotics enhanced the therapeutic effect of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) on alleviating neuropathic pain (NP) due to chronic constriction injury (CCI) mainly through regulating the microbiota in rats. SD rats (n = 50) were categorized into group 1 (sham-control), group 2 (NP), group 3 (NP + probiotics (i.e., 1.5 billion C.F.U./day/rat, orally 3 h after NP procedure, followed by QOD 30 times)), group 4 (NP + ADMSCs (3.0 × 10⁵ cells) 3 h after CCI procedure, followed by QOD six times (i.e., seven times in total, i.e., mimic a clinical setting of drug use) and group 5 (NP + probiotics + ADMSCs (3.0 × 10⁵ cells)) and euthanized by day 60 after NP induction. By day 28 after NP induction, flow-cytometric analysis showed circulating levels of early (AN-V⁺/PI⁻) and late (AN-V⁺/PI⁺) apoptotic, and three inflammatory (CD11b-c+, Ly6G+ and MPO+) cells were lowest in group 1 and significantly progressively reduced in groups 2 to 5 (all p < 0.0001). By days 7, 14, 21, 28, and 60 after CCI, the thresholds of thermal paw withdrawal latency (PWL) and mechanical paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) were highest in group 1 and significantly progressively increased in groups 2 to 5 (all p < 0.0001). Numbers of pain-connived cells (Nav1.8+/peripherin+, p-ERK+/peripherin+, p-p38+/peripherin+ and p-p38+/NF200+) and protein expressions of inflammatory (p-NF-κB, IL-1ß, TNF-α and MMP-9), apoptotic (cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-PARP), oxidative-stress (NOX-1, NOX-2), DNA-damaged (γ-H2AX) and MAPK-family (p-P38, p-JNK, p-ERK1/2) biomarkers as well as the protein levels of Nav.1.3, Nav.1.8, and Nav.1.9 in L4-L5 in dorsal root ganglia displayed an opposite pattern of mechanical PWT among the groups (all p < 0.0001). In conclusion, combined probiotic and ADMSC therapy was superior to merely one for alleviating CCI-induced NP mainly through suppressing inflammation and oxidative stress. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of MSCs on Inflammatory and Fibrotic Diseases)

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