TGF-βl Suppresses Inflammation in Cell Therapy for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

TL;DR

This study shows that TGF-β1 in cell therapy reduces inflammation and improves disc repair in degenerative intervertebral discs.

Contribution

The study reveals that TGF-β1 enhances cell therapy outcomes by suppressing inflammation and promoting disc tissue regeneration.

Findings

Co-culturing cells increased TGF-β1 secretion, which inhibited NF-κB activation.

Cell therapy with TGF-β1 improved disc recovery in rabbits compared to controls.

TGF-β1 increased collagen II and aggrecan expression, reducing disc degradation.

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that cell therapy may be an effective way to repair intervertebral disc degeneration. As a strong immune suppressor, TGF-β1 has been shown to inhibit inflammation respond effectively. The objective of this study was to explore the effects of TGF-β1 during bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells-based therapy for disc degeneration. In vitro assays demonstrated that co-culturing of nucleus pulposus cells with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells resulted in significantly higher levels of TGF-βl secretion. This increase inhibited IκB phosphorylation and NF-κB activation, detected by western blot analysis. Meanwhile, in a rabbit model, MRI analysis revealed significant recovery of signal intensity in the degenerative discs of rabbits receiving cells transplantation, than receiving cells treated with a TGF-β1 inhibitor or saline. These findings indicated that enhanced TGF-β1 production recovered the degeneration of intervertebral disc. And also immunohistochemical staining detected enhanced collagen II expression in the rabbits treated with cell transplantation. However, the NF-κB positive cells were significantly less than other two control groups. Thus, cell therapy promoted TGF-β1 expression in nucleus pulposus, leading to anti-inflammatory effects via the inhibition of NF-κB, and the amelioration of disc degradation due to increased expression of collagen II and aggrecan in degenerative intervertebral disc.

Figures