Therapeutic roles of telocytes in OVA‐induced acute asthma in mice

Abstract

Telocytes (TCs) newly discovered as the mesenchyme‐derived interstitial cells were found to have supportive effects on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The present study aimed at investigating effects of TCs or TCs gathered with MSCs on experimental airway inflammation and hyper‐responsiveness. The TCs were isolated from the lung tissue of the female BALB/c mice. The ovalbumin (OVA)‐induced asthma model was established. TCs (1 × 106/2 × 106) and/or MSCs (1 × 106) were injected through mice tail vein for consecutive three days before OVA excited the mice. This study at first demonstrated that the transplantation of TCs could improve allergen‐induced asthma by obviously inhibiting airway inflammation and airway hyper‐responsiveness preclinically, with the down‐regulation of Th2‐related cytokine IL‐4, transcription factor GATA‐3 and Th2 cell differentiation, while up‐regulation of Th1‐related cytokine IFN‐γ, transcription factor T‐bet and Th1 cells proliferation in asthma, just like MSCs. Co‐transplantation of TCs with MSCs showed better therapeutic effects on experimental asthma, even though the therapeutic effects of TCs alone were similar to those of MSCs alone. TCs and the combination of TCs with MSCs could improve the airway inflammation and airway hyper‐responsiveness and can be a new alternative for asthma therapy.

Telocytes inhibited inflammatory factor expression and enhanced cell migration in LPS-induced skin wound healing models in vitro and in vivo

“…Inflammatory factors are deeply involved in LPSinduced apoptosis and injury, and could be regulated by ROS [25]. Secreting IFN-γ to induce the differentiation of naive CD4 + T cells into Th1 cells had been considered for TCs to improve allergen-induced airway inflammation and hyper-responsiveness [7]. Our current study demonstrated that TCs reversed LPS-induced IL-6 expression in HaCaT cells, HDMECs, and L929 cells.…”

“…TCs are distinguished from other interstitial cell types, including stem cells and fibroblasts, by protein profiles and gene profiles [6]. Many studies have found that TCs can exert a substantial impact on regeneration and repair, for example, reducing myocardial infarction and acute lung injury [7]. TCs can affect other adjacent cells via direct connection or indirect modes by producing and releasing materials and molecules, including extracellular vesicles, and they are particularly involved in cell-to-cell communication [8].…”

Recently discovered interstitial cells termed telocytes: distinguishing cell-biological and histological facts from fictions

“…Telocytes in mammals have also been intensely studied. They have been detected in livestock, such as sheep (Abd-Elhafeez et al 2017), in pets, like dogs (Xu et al 2016), and in laboratory animals, like guinea pigs (Nguyen et al 2011), rats (Hatta et al 2012) and mice (Ye et al 2017). Moreover, telocytes have been found also in invertebrates; in 2017, the presence of telocytes was confirmed in leeches (Hirudo medicinalis) (Pulze et al 2017).…”

Ultrastructural and immunohistochemical characteristics of telocytes in human scalp tissue

“…In recent years, researchers have used focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy to investigate the 3D imaging of TCs in human dermis, and have revealed the existence of Tps with various conformations: (i) long, flattened irregular veils (ribbon-like segments) with knobs, corresponding to podoms, and (ii) tubular structures (podomers) with uneven calibre because of irregular dilations (knobs) -the podoms 10 . So far, TCs have been detected in many tissues and organs, including the heart 11,12 , lung 13,14 , skeletal muscle 15 , skin 16,17 , eye 18,19 , liver 20 , uterus 21 and urinary system 22,23 .…”