Dry eye syndrome (DES) is considered as an ocular surface inflammatory disease. Previous studies have shown inflammation plays an important role in the progression and onset of DES. Co-culture of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (HBMSCs) and macrophages showed immunomodulatory effects via regulation of cytokine regulation. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the interaction of these cells on in vitro DES model. The conditioned media (CM) from macrophages, HBMSCs, and HBMSCs + macrophages were treated to human corneal epithelial cells, which showed significant reduction in IL-1α and IL-1β expression levels in HBMSCs + macrophages group. Moreover, the IL-1 Receptor Antagonist (IL-1RA) was highly expressed in the CM from the HBMSCs + macrophages group. Wounded eyes of mice were treated with IL-1RA at 0-100 ng/mL for 16 h, the wound size was reduced. The results of this study might lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets for DES.
Keywords: CM:conditioned media; DES: dry eye syndrome; DMEM: Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium; DMSO: dimethyl sulfoxide; ELISA: enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; FACS: fluorescence-activated cell sorting; FBS:fetal bovine serum; HBMSCs: human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; HCE cells: human corneal epithelial cells; IL-1 Receptor Antagonist; LPS: Lipopolysaccharide; MSCs: mesenchymal stem cells; Mesenchymal stem cells; PBS: phosphate-buffered saline; PMA: Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate; QTOF-LC-MS/MS: quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectroscopy; RA: Receptor Antagonist; RPMI: Roswell Park Memorial Institute; SEC: size exclusion chromatography; dry eye syndrome; human corneal epithelial cells.