BackgroundMacrophages are immunological cells that sense microenvironmental signals that may result in the polarized expression of either proinflammatory (M1) or anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotype.1 Macrophages M2 are present in tumoral microenvironment and their presence in patients with cervical cancer (CeCa) is related with less survival.2Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) are also present in tumor microenvironment of cervical cancer (CeCa-MSC), which have shown immunoregulatory effects over CD8 T cells, decreasing their cytotoxic effect against tumoral cells.3 Interestingly, MSCs from bone marrow (BM-MSC) decrease M1 and increase M2 macrophage polarization in an in vitro coculture system.4 Macrophages and MSCs are present in microenvironment of cervical cancer, however it is unknown if MSCs play a role in macrophage polarization. In the present study, we have evaluated the immunoregulatory capacity of CeCa-MSCs to induce macrophage polarization.MethodsCD14 monocytes were isolated from peripheral blood and cultivated in the absence or presence of MSCs from BM, normal cervix (NCx) and CeCa. Two culture conditions were included, in the presence of induction medium to favors M1 (GM-CSF, LPS and IFNg) or M2 (M-CSF, IL-4 and IL-13) macrophage polarization. M1 (HLA-DR, CD80, CD86 and IFNg) or M2 (CD14, CD163, CD206, IDO and IL-10) macrophage molecular markers were evaluated by flow cytometry. Finally, we evaluated concentration of IL-10 and TNFa in conditioned medium form all coculture conditions.ResultsWe observed that CeCa-MSCs and BM-MSCs in presence of M1 induction medium, decreased M1 macrophage markers (HLA-II, CD80, CD86 and IFNg), and increase the expression of CD14 (M2 macrophage marker). Interestingly, in presence of M2 induction medium, BM-MSCs and CaCe-MSCs but not CxN-MSC increased CD163, CD206, IDO and IL-10 (M2 macrophage markers). We observed a decreased concentration of TNFa in the supernatant medium from all cocultures with MSCs, but only in presence of CeCa-MSCs, increased IL-10 concentration was detected in such cocultures.ConclusionsIn contrast to NCx-MSCs, CeCa-MSCs similarly to BM-MSCs have in vitro capacity to decrease M1 and increase M2 macrophage phenotype.AcknowledgementsAcknowledgments The authors are indebted to gratefully acknowledge to CONACYT (Grant No. 272793) and IMSS (Grant no. 1731) for support to Juan J. Montesinos research.ReferencesMartinez FO, Gordon S. The M1 and M2 paradigm of macrophage activation: time for reassessment. F1000Prime Rep 2014;6-13.Petrillo M, Zannoni GF, Martinelli E, et al. Polarization of tumor-associated macrophages toward M2 phenotype correlates with poor response to chemoradiation and reduced survival in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. PLoS One 2015;10: e0136654.Montesinos JJ, Mora-García Mde L, et al. In vitro evidence of the presence of mesenchymal stromal cells in cervical cancer and their role in protecting cancer cells from cytotoxic T cell activity. Stem Cells Dev 2013;22:2508-2519.Vasandan AB, Jahnavi S, Shashank C. Human mesenchymal stem cells program macrophage plasticity by altering their metabolic status via a PGE 2-dependent mechanism. Sci Rep 2016;6:38308.
Human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells support the ex vivo expansion of cord blood hematopoietic stem cells