FIG. 3.

Immunological effects of CCIM after nonmyeloablative conditioning of BMT. The CCIM with MSCs and Tregs results in a significant reduction in Th17 cells, but enhancement in Treg cells. Expression level of transcription factor mRNA is measured in the spleen cells by real-time PCR at 1 week post-transplantation. (A) Expression of IL-17 was decreased and Foxp3 and (B) IL-10 were increased in CCIM treatment groups than in single cell therapy groups. (C, D) The following endogenous T-cell differentiation subsets in the all groups were identified by FACS analysis with antibodies: endogenous Treg cells (H-2^b+CD4⁺Foxp3⁺) and endogenous Th17 cells (H-2^b+CD4⁺IL-17⁺). (E) Data are presented as the ratio of Treg/Th17 among CD4⁺ T cells, which was calculated as the ratio of IL-17⁺ CD4⁺ T cells divided by the percentage of Foxp3⁺ CD4⁺ T cells. The purity of all cell subsets was >95% as determined by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis. Data are shown as the mean±SEM; results are representative of four independent experiments. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001.