TY - EJOU AU - Bayati, Fatemeh AU - Valadi, Maryam AU - Ahmadi, Armin AU - Najaf, Farangis AU - Ansaripour, Bita AU - Sharif-Paghaleh, Ehsan TI - Evaluation of immunomodulatory effects of co-culture or supernatant of dexamethasone or IFN-γ-treated adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells on spleen mononuclear cells T2 - European Cytokine Network PY - 2022 VL - 33 IS - 3 SN - 1952-4005 AB - Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have exhibited promising immunomodulatory potential in preclinical studies, clinical studies have revealed variable results. These results often depend on environmental cues. Pre-conditioning MSCs with cytokines is one of the methods used to enhance their immunomodulatory effects. In this study, we harvested adipose-derived MSCs from mice and cultured them with different doses of the cytokine, IFN-γ, and the corticosteroid drug, dexamethasone, in order to investigate their effects on MSC immunosuppressive function. We found the co-culture or supernatant of MSCs, pre-conditioned with IFN-γ, together with spleen mononuclear cells resulted in a significant reduction of mononuclear cell proliferation. Although the supernatant of MSCs, pre-conditioned with dexamethasone, showed similar results, dexamethasone pre-conditioning of co-cultured MSCs increased mononuclear cell proliferation. The results further our understanding of immune-related effects of MSCs which may provide a basis for further in vivo studies to achieve better clinical results. We propose that pre-conditioning with cytokines might be an effective method to boost the immunomodulatory effects of MSCs. KW - immunomodulation KW - mesenchymal stem cells KW - IFN-γ KW - dexamethasone DO - 10.1684/ecn.2022.0482