Suppression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by interleukin-10 transduced neural stem/progenitor cells

Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) have the ability to migrate into the central nervous system (CNS) to replace damaged cells. In inflammatory CNS disease, cytokine transduced neural stem cells may be used as vehicles to specifically reduce inflammation and promote cell replacement. In this study, we used NSPCs overexpressing IL-10, an immunomodulatory cytokine, in an animal model for CNS inflammation and multiple sclerosis (MS). Intravenous injection of IL-10 transduced neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPC(IL-10)) suppressed myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein aa 35–55 (MOG35-55)- induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and, following intravenous injection, NSPC(IL-10) migrated to peripheral lymphoid organs and into the CNS. NSPC(IL-10) suppressed antigen-specific proliferation and proinflammatory cytokine production of lymph node cells obtained from MOG35-55 peptide immunized mice. In this model, IL-10 producing NSPCs act via a peripheral immunosuppressive effect to attenuate EAE.