Flowcytometric Assessment of Lymphocyte Subsets in Type-1 Dia­betic Patients following Allotransplantation of Liver-derived Fetal Stem-cells

Abstract

Background: Although the pathogenesis of diabetes type 1 (T1D) is not fully elucidated. Different clusters of lymphocytes such as CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are involved in it. Moreover, the mechanism of how stem-cell therapy results in significant therapeutic outcomes in diabetes remains obscure. In the current study, we aimed to analyze lymphocyte subsets in patients with T1D before and after treatment with Liver-derived Fetal Stem-cells, and investigated the potential underlying immunological mechanism of therapeutic effects of stem-cell therapy.

Methods: Seventy-two patients with T1D were selected for our study and underwent allotransplantation of liver-derived fetal stem-cells. Relative counts of peripheral blood T and B lymphocyte subsets were detected by the means of flow cytometry analysis.

Results: Our results demonstrated that administration of fetal liver-derived fetal stem-cells resulted in significant changes in the subpopulations of lymphocytes of the patients, more specifically, levels of CD4+, CD8+, CD16+, and CD19+ lymphocytes.

Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that different subsets of lymphocytes significantly change following stem-cell therapy for diabetes. As it is demonstrated that immunological mechanisms are involved in pathogenesis of diabetes, these changes can suggest that therapeutic effect of stem-cell therapy for diabetes may be exerted via alternations in different lymphocyte subsets.

 Keywords: Diabetes, Fetal stem-cell, Flow cytometry, Lymphocyte