Interactions between mesenchymal stem cells and the immune system
Open accessAbstract
In addition to being multi-potent, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess immunomodulatory functions that have been investigated as potential treatments in various immune disorders. MSCs can robustly interact with cells of the innate and adaptive immune systems, either through direct cell-cell contact or through their secretome. In this review, we discuss current findings regarding the interplay between MSCs and different immune cell subsets. We also draw attention to the mechanisms involved.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In a model of endotoxin-induced lung injury, MSC-derived EVs inhibited the migration of neutrophils into the lung.
“in a model of endotoxin-induced lung injury, the MSC-derived-EVs inhibited the migration of neutrophils into the lung [42], [68]”
From Mesenchymal stem cell secretome for regenerative medicine: Where do we stand? (2025) · cites this paper as [42]
MSCs secrete CXCL8 and macrophage migration inhibitory factor, which recruit neutrophils into the injured site.
“MSCs also secrete CXCL8 (also known as IL-8) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), known for recruiting neutrophils into the injured site [42], [64].”
From Mesenchymal stem cell secretome for regenerative medicine: Where do we stand? (2025) · cites this paper as [42]
BM-MSCs can reduce apoptosis of resting or activated neutrophils by releasing IL-6, TSG-6 and SOD3.
“by releasing IL-6 [42], TSG-6 [62] and superoxide dismutase (SOD3) [63], BM-MSCs can reduce apoptosis of neutrophils that are resting or activated [42]”
From Mesenchymal stem cell secretome for regenerative medicine: Where do we stand? (2025) · cites this paper as [42]
Cites
Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Kill Bacteria
Brinkmann, V., Reichard, U., Goosmann, C., Fauler, B., Uhlemann, Y., Weiss, D. S., Weinrauch, Y., & Zychlinsky, A. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1092385 · Cited by 10,268 · see citing works
Control of Regulatory T Cell Development by the Transcription Factor <i>Foxp3</i>
Hori, S., Nomura, T., & Sakaguchi, S. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1079490 · Cited by 8,187 · see citing works
Neutrophil recruitment and function in health and inflammation
Kolaczkowska, E., & Kubes, P. (2013) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/nri3399 · Cited by 5,472 · see citing works
Human mesenchymal stem cells modulate allogeneic immune cell responses
Aggarwal, S., & Pittenger, M. F. (2005) · Blood · doi:10.1182/blood-2004-04-1559 · Cited by 4,511 · see citing works
Macrophages in Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis
Wynn, T. A., & Vannella, K. M. (2016) · Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2016.02.015 · Cited by 4,481 · see citing works
A Lineage of Myeloid Cells Independent of Myb and Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Schulz, C., Perdiguero, E. G., Chorro, L., Szabo-Rogers, H., Cagnard, N., Kierdorf, K., Prinz, M., Wu, B., Jacobsen, S. E. W., Pollard, J. W., et al. (2012) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1219179 · Cited by 2,578 · see citing works
Németh, K., Leelahavanichkul, A., Yuen, P. S. T., Mayer, B., Parmelee, A., Doi, K., Robey, P. G., Leelahavanichkul, K., Koller, B. H., Brown, J. M., et al. (2009) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/nm.1905 · Cited by 2,364 · see citing works
Transcriptional control of effector and memory CD8+ T cell differentiation
Kaech, S. M., & Cui, W. (2012) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/nri3307 · Cited by 1,628 · see citing works
Species Variation in the Mechanisms of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Mediated Immunosuppression
Ren, G., Su, J., Zhang, L., Zhao, X., Ling, W., L'huillie, A., Zhang, J., Lu, Y., Roberts, A. I., Ji, W., et al. (2009) · Stem Cells · doi:10.1002/stem.118 · Cited by 597 · see citing works
Frenette, P. S., Pinho, S., Lucas, D., & Scheiermann, C. (2013) · Annual Review of Immunology · doi:10.1146/annurev-immunol-032712-095919 · Cited by 462 · cited 1× · see citing works
“[18, 19], with effective outcomes in several cases [41, 181–184].”
BackgroundMesenchymal stem cells induce apoptosis of activated T cells
Plumas, J., Chaperot, L., Richard, M.-J., Molens, J.-P., Bensa, J.-C., & Favrot, M.-C. (2005) · Leukemia · doi:10.1038/sj.leu.2403871 · Cited by 326 · see citing works
Brandau, S., Jakob, M., Hemeda, H., Bruderek, K., Janeschik, S., Bootz, F., & Lang, S. (2010) · Journal of Leukocyte Biology · doi:10.1189/jlb.0410207 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Lee, K.-C., Lin, H.-C., Huang, Y.-H., & Hung, S.-C. (2015) · Journal of Hepatology · doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2015.07.035 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mesenchymal stem cell secretome for regenerative medicine: Where do we stand?
Trigo, C. M., Rodrigues, J. S., Camões, S. P., Solá, S., & Miranda, J. P. (2025) · Journal of Advanced Research · doi:10.1016/j.jare.2024.05.004 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
“Nevertheless, the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory capacities of MSCs (Table 1) were postulated as essential to retrieve local and systemic conditions for normal tissue repair alongside MSC-mediated pro-angiogenic, anti-apoptotic and antimicrobial effects (Table 2) [8,9,12,39,42,43].”
InfluentialMesenchymal stroma: Role in osteosarcoma progression
Cortini, M., Avnet, S., & Baldini, N. (2017) · Cancer Letters · doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2017.07.024 · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Galland, S., & Stamenkovic, I. (2020) · The Journal of Pathology · doi:10.1002/path.5357 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Mesenchymal stem cell immunomodulation: in pursuit of controlling COVID-19 related cytokine storm
Song, N., Wakimoto, H., Rossignoli, F., Bhere, D., Ciccocioppo, R., Chen, K.-S., Khalsa, J. K., Mastrolia, I., Samarelli, A. V., Dominici, M., et al. (2021) · Stem Cells · doi:10.1002/stem.3354 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
- Authors
- Li, N., & Hua, J.
- Affiliations
- Northwest A&F University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Hua, Jinlian
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
- Published
- 2017-02-18
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 2345-2360
- ISSN
- 1420-682X (ISSN-L)
- 1420-9071
- PMC
- PMC11107583
- OpenAlex
- W2587794239
- Cited by
- 338
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 58 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 3.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- the China National Basic Research Program (JFYS 2016YFA0100203)
- the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272518, 31572399)
- the Program of the Shaanxi Province (2015NY157)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Genetics › Mesenchymal stem cell research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Hematology › Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
- Keywords
- mesenchymal stem cells, immunomodulation, innate immune system, adaptive immunity, cell-cell contact, secretome, immune disorders, immune cell interactions
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Immune System, Models, Biological, Immunomodulation, Mesenchymal Stem Cells
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review