Human fetal liver MSCs are more effective than adult bone marrow MSCs for their immunosuppressive, immunomodulatory, and Foxp3(+) T reg induction capacity

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit active abilities to suppress or modulate deleterious immune responses by various molecular mechanisms. These cells are the subject of major translational efforts as cellular therapies for immune-related diseases and transplantations. Plenty of preclinical studies and clinical trials employing MSCs have shown promising safety and efficacy outcomes and also shed light on the modifications in the frequency and function of regulatory T cells (T regs). Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying these observations are not well known. Direct cell contact, soluble factor production, and turning antigen-presenting cells into tolerogenic phenotypes, have been proposed to be among possible mechanisms by which MSCs produce an immunomodulatory environment for T reg expansion and activity. We and others demonstrated that adult bone marrow (BM)-MSCs suppress adaptive immune responses directly by inhibiting the proliferation of CD4(+) helper and CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells but also indirectly through the induction of T regs. In parallel, we demonstrated that fetal liver (FL)-MSCs demonstrates much longer-lasting immunomodulatory properties compared to BM-MSCs, by inhibiting directly the proliferation and activation of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Therefore, we investigated if FL-MSCs exert their strong immunosuppressive effect also indirectly through induction of T regs. METHODS: MSCs were obtained from FL and adult BM and characterized according to their surface antigen expression, their multilineage differentiation, and their proliferation potential. Using different in vitro combinations, we performed co-cultures of FL- or BM-MSCs and murine CD3(+)CD25(−)T cells to investigate immunosuppressive effects of MSCs on T cells and to quantify their capacity to induce functional T regs. RESULTS: We demonstrated that although both types of MSC display similar cell surface phenotypic profile and differentiation capacity, FL-MSCs have significantly higher proliferative capacity and ability to suppress both CD4(+) and CD8(+) murine T cell proliferation and to modulate them towards less active phenotypes than adult BM-MSCs. Moreover, their substantial suppressive effect was associated with an outstanding increase of functional CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) T regs compared to BM-MSCs. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the immunosuppressive activity of FL-MSCs on T cells and show for the first time that one of the main immunoregulatory mechanisms of FL-MSCs passes through active and functional T reg induction. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13287-021-02176-1.