Suppressive effect mediated by human adipose-derived stem cells on T cells involves the activation of JNK

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) have an immunomodulatory role in vascularized composite tissue allo-transplantation (VCA). However, the specific effects of ADSCs on lymphocytes remain to be fully elucidated. The present study examined the changes in T cells co-cultured with ADSCs in terms of the proliferation by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, cell cycle profile and apoptosis by flow cytom-etry, inflammatory cytokine production by polymerase chain reaction and ELISA, in addition to the expression of survival proteins by western blotting. The ADSCs reduced the viability of Jurkat T cells and downregulated the transcription of tumor necrosis factor-α and transforming growth factor-β1. Co-culture with ADSCs also induced apoptosis and increased the levels of phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase in the T cells. Taken together, these findings confirmed that ADSCs modulate the host immune response by suppressing T cells.