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Steroid-Mediated Decrease in Blood Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Liver Transplant could Impact Long-Term Recovery

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Abstract

Orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) remains the standard of care for end stage liver disease. To circumvent allo-rejection, OLT subjects receive gluococorticoids (GC). We investigated the effects of GC on endogenous mesenchymal stem (stromal) cells (MSCs) in OLT. This question is relevant because MSCs have regenerative potential and immune suppressor function. Phenotypic analyses of blood samples from 12 OLT recipients, at pre-anhepatic, anhepatic and post-transplant (2 h, Days 1 and 5) indicated a significant decrease in MSCs after GC injection. The MSCs showed better recovery in the blood from subjects who started with relatively low MSCs as compared to those with high levels at the prehepatic phase. This drop in MSCs appeared to be linked to GC since similar change was not observed in liver resection subjects. In order to understand the effects of GC on decrease MSC migration, in vitro studies were performed in transwell cultures. Untreated MSCs could not migrate towards the GC-exposed liver tissue, despite CXCR4 expression and the production of inflammatory cytokines from the liver cells. GC-treated MSCs were inefficient with respect to migration towards CXCL12, and this correlated with retracted cytoskeleton and motility. These dysfunctions were partly explained by decreases in the CXCL12/receptor axis. GC-associated decrease in MSCs in OLT recipients recovered post-transplant, despite poor migratory ability towards GC-exposed liver. In total, the study indicated that GC usage in transplant needs to be examined to determine if this could be reduced or avoided with adjuvant cell therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a grant from the FM Kirby Foundation. This work was performed in partial fullfilment of a doctoral thesis for NDW

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA

    Nykia D. Walker, Steven J. Greco, Nikolaos Pyrsopoulos & Pranela Rameshwar

  2. Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Newark, NJ, USA

    Nykia D. Walker, Yasmine Mourad & Pranela Rameshwar

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA

    Katherine Liu, Michael Buxhoeveden, Catherine Schoenberg, Jean D. Eloy, Andrei Botea, Faraz Chaudhry & Yuriy Gubenko

  4. Department of Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA

    Dorian J. Wilson, Lloyd G. Brown & Baburao Koneru

  5. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA

    Nicholas M. Ponzio

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  1. Nykia D. Walker
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Correspondence to Yuriy Gubenko or Pranela Rameshwar.

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The work is in partial fullfilment for the doctoral thesis of Nykia D. Walker.

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Walker, N.D., Mourad, Y., Liu, K. et al. Steroid-Mediated Decrease in Blood Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Liver Transplant could Impact Long-Term Recovery. Stem Cell Rev and Rep 13, 644–658 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-017-9751-3

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