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Effect of Alginate Microbead Encapsulation of Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Their Immunomodulatory Function

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Abstract

In this research we have used different cytokines and progesterone to enhance the immunomodulatory capacity of placental-derived stem cells (PLSCs) prior to their encapsulation. We assessed the effect of microencapsulation of the cells without (control) or after 3-day treatment with interferon gamma (INFγ), interleukin10 (IL-10), or progesterone (P4). Treated PLSCs demonstrated strong immunosuppressive effects on phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs). INFγ treatment resulted in the strongest immune inhibition among the treated groups. The treatments enhanced soluble human leukocyte antigen (sHLAG) secretion compared to control. The IL-10-treated group showed the highest effect on HLAG secretion compared to other groups. Alginate encapsulation of PLSCs did not affect cell viability, or sHLAG secretion. Also, after treatment the encapsulated PLSCs inhibited PHA-activated PBMNCs in the same manner as unencapsulated cells. We studied two groups of encapsulated PLSCs, one without perm-selective poly-l-ornithine (PLO)-coating and the other with PLO-coating, and measured levels of sHLAG secreted. We found no difference in sHLAG secretion between both groups. In summary, our data show that immunomodulatory function of the PLSC is not affected by encapsulation. These findings provide good promise for potential use of encapsulated PLSCs for immunomodulation treatment of disease by stem cell therapy.

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Data Availability

All data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Sean Murphy Lab at WFIRM for the provision of the placenta mesenchymal stem cells used in our studies.

Funding

This work was supported in part with funds from a scholarship from the Egyptian government to Fatma Khalil as a part of a joint research training supervision agreement with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Fatma Khalil, Abdelrahman Alwan, Patrick Ralph & Emmanuel C. Opara

  2. Department of Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, 83523, Egypt

    Fatma Khalil & Soha Soliman

  3. Department of Histology, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

    Eman A. Abdelrahim

  4. Department of Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, Assuit, 71526, Egypt

    Enas A. Abdelhafez

  5. Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES), Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Emmanuel C. Opara

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  1. Fatma Khalil
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Correspondence to Emmanuel C. Opara.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this study.

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

All human cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs), and placental stem cells (PLSCs) used in this study were obtained in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki under protocols approved by the Wake Forest University Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB).

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Associate Editor Joel D. Stitzel oversaw the review of this article.

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Khalil, F., Alwan, A., Ralph, P. et al. Effect of Alginate Microbead Encapsulation of Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Their Immunomodulatory Function. Ann Biomed Eng 50, 291–302 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-02920-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-02920-5

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