Congenic Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy Reverses Hyperglycemia

whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are effective in treating various diseases, including type 1 diabetes. Although this cell therapy holds great promise, the optimal source of MSCs has yet to be determined with respect to major histocompatibility com-plex matching. Here, we examine this question by testing the ability of congenic MSCs, obtained from the NOR mouse strain, to reverse recent-onset type 1 diabetes in NOD mice, as well as determine the immunomodulatory effects of NOR MSCs in vivo. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—NOR MSCs were evaluated with regard to their in vitro immunomodulatory func-tion in the context of autoreactive T-cell proliferation and dendritic cell (DC) generation. The in vivo effect of NOR MSC therapy on reversal of recent-onset hyperglycemia and on immu-nogenic cell subsets in NOD mice was also examined. RESULTS—NOR MSCs were shown to suppress diabetogeni