Preconditioned mesenchymal stem cells treat myasthenia gravis in a humanized preclinical model.

ABSTRACT: Myasthenia gravis (MG) with anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) Abs is an autoimmune disease characterized by severe defects in immune regulation and thymic inflammation. Because mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) display immunomodulatory features, we investigated whether and how in vitro-preconditioned human MSCs (cMSCs) could treat MG disease. We developed a new humanized preclinical model by subcutaneously grafting thymic MG fragments into immunodeficient NSG mice (NSG-MG model). Ninety percent of the animals displayed human anti-AChR Abs in the serum, and 50% of the animals displayed MG-like symptoms that correlated with the loss of AChR at the muscle endplates. Interestingly, each mouse experiment recapitulated the MG features of each patient. We next demonstrated that cMSCs markedly improv

SUBMITTER: Sudres M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5374074 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature