Abstract

MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS AS A THERAPEUTIC TOOL FOR MEDIATED ARTHRITIC LESIONS IN LIVER, HEART AND SPLEEN IN ADULT MALE ALBINO RATS

Basma M. Wasfy, Faten A. M. Abo-Aziza, Sahar S. Abd-Elhalem* and Sanaa M. R. Wahba

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Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis, a systemic, inflammatory autoimmune disease of unknown etiology, mainly involves joint synovial cell proliferation and is accompanied by several comorbidities as liver, heart and spleen. Adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) has been presently used as for rheumatoid arthritis induction through injection of adjuvant into the right hind paw of rats. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently employed as a promising therapy for RA due to its limited reported side effects. The present study is a trial to elucidate the efficacy of MSC therapy on generated side effects in liver, heart and spleen tissue induced by RA. Sixty adult male albino rats were allotted into three experimental groups Group 1 (C): i.p. injected with 0.1 saline; group 2 (AIA): injected with complete Freund’s adjuvant for arthritis induction; group 3 (AIA +MSCs): injected with complete Freund’s adjuvant and then treated with MSCs. For total body weights, AIA group recorded significant attenuations. Following four weeks of experimental duration rats were dissected for histologic investigation of liver, heart and spleen. Hepatic lesions in AIA rat sections were encountered as diffused vacuolations; multifocal mononuclear and lymphocytic inflammatory cell infiltrations; widened hepatic sinusoids and necrotic nuclei. The cardiac tissue manifested myocarditis; cardiocytic inflammations; vacuolations and hemorrhagic lesions; congested blood vessels and degenerative necrotic myocytes. Limited lesions were imposed on splenic tissue as atrophied lymphoid follicles with expansion of the red pulps. Most of these alterations returned to near to normal profiles following 4-week MSCs therapy. Thus, stem cell therapy may prove to be a promising route for the treatment of both RA and its initiated side effects in hepatic, cardiac and splenic tissue.

Keywords: Adjuvant induced arthritis, inflammation, Autoimmune disease.