Total glucosides of paeony improves the immunomodulatory capacity of MSCs partially via the miR-124/STAT3 pathway in oral lichen planus.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been used clinically and experimentally to relieve severe immune-related diseases due to their immunomodulatory properties, but these are impaired by inflammation. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a T cell-mediated chronic inflammatory mucosal disease. In the present study, we found MSCs from OLP with higher expression of interleukin (IL)-6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) and IL-10 compared with control. Total glucosides of paeony (TGP) significantly improves the immunomodulatory function of MSCs by inhibiting IL-6 and TNF-α expression and increasing TGF-ß and IL-10 expression. Moreover, TGP can downregulate p-STAT3 expression through upregulation of miR-124. The changes of IL-6, TGF-ß and p-STAT3 were further confirmed by overexpression and knockdown of miR-124 in MSCs. Taken together, the immune-regulating function of MSCs can be improved by TGP via the miR-124/STAT3 pathway.

Effect of compound glycyrrhizin injection on liver function and cellular immunity of children with infectious mononucleosis complicated liver impairment.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Compound Glycyrrhizin Injection (CGI) on liver function and cellular immunity of children with infectious mononucleosis complicated liver impairment (IM-LI) and to explore its clinical therapeutic effect. METHODS: Forty-two patients with IM-LI were randomly assigned, according to the randomizing number table, to two groups, 20 in the control group and 22 in the treated group. All the patients were treated with conventional treatment, but to those in the treated group, CGI was given additionally once a day, at the dosage of 10 ml for children aged below 2 years, 20 ml for 2-4 years old, 30 ml for 5-7 years old and 40 ml for 8- 12 years old, in 100-200 ml of 5% glucose solution by intravenous dripping. The treatment lasted for 2 weeks. T lymphocyte subsets and serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total bilirubin (TBil) were detected before and after treatment. Besides, a normal control group consisting of 20 healthy children was also set up. RESULTS: Baseline of the percentage of CD3 + , CD8 + lymphocyte and serum levels of ALT, AST, TBiL in the children with IM-LI were markedly higher, while the percentage of CD4 + lymphocyte and the CD4 + /CD8 + ratio was markedly lower in IM-LI children as compared with the corresponding indices in the healthy children ( P<0.01). These indices were improved after treatment in both groups of patients, but the improvement in the treated group was better than that in the control group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Cellular immunity dysfunction often occurs in patients with IM-LI, and CGI treatment can not only obviously promote the recovery of liver function, but also regulate the immune function in organism.