Peripheral Tissue Antigen Display by Mesenchymal Stem Cells

描述（由申请方提供）：驱动本项目的基本原理是，已知体内存在表达外周组织抗原（pTA）并诱导体内自身反应性淋巴细胞耐受的天然细胞。我们已经发现，MSC也表达这些pTA，并且与其他表达pTA的细胞不同，MSC可以在离体加工期间保持这种表达。我们假设MSC自身抗原的表达对于自身免疫性疾病模型中细胞移植的治疗功效是必不可少的，因此可以进行离体监测/优化以创建定制的细胞疗法。目的是评估pTA表达在体外和体内对MSC的免疫应答中的相关性，并在肠道自身免疫的抗原特异性模型治疗期间对这些细胞移植物进行成像。长期目标是评估MSC作为治疗作用模式的独特抗原呈递形式的这种用途，并基本上创建基于抗原特异性干细胞移植物的新药物类别。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The rationale driving this project is that there are natural cells in the body that are known to express peripheral tissue antigens (pTAs) and induce tolerance to self-reactive lymphocytes in vivo. We have discovered that MSCs also express these pTAs and can maintain this expression during ex vivo processing unlike other pTA expressing cells. We hypothesize that the expression of self antigens by MSCs is essential for the therapeutic efficacy of cell transplants in models of autoimmune disease, and therefore may be amenable to ex vivo monitoring/optimization to create a tailored cell therapy. The objectives are to evaluate the relevance of pTA expression in the immune response to MSCs, both in vitro and in vivo, and image these cell grafts during the treatment of an antigen-specific model of intestinal autoimmunity. The long-term goal is to evaluate this use of a unique form of antigen presentation by MSCs as a therapeutic mode of action and essentially create a new drug class based on antigen-specific stem cell grafts.