中国医学科学院基础医学研究所赵春华教授有关树突状细胞的研究以封面文章形式发表于血液学领域权威杂志《血液》（Blood）上。
本次在Blood上发表的文章首次将间充质干细胞与树突状细胞的成熟分化命运转归联系起来，尤其是探讨了间充质干细胞是否会影响成熟的树突状细胞的表型（细胞的外在表现特性）和功能及凋亡。
研究小组将间充质干细胞和成熟的树突状细胞进行共培养（在体外条件下让它们共同生长繁殖），结果证明间充质干细胞不但阻止树突状细胞凋亡，且促使成熟树突状细胞的大量增殖，表型也发生了改变，即使之成为一种短树突状圆型的树突状细胞，称之为调节性树突状细胞，这种细胞可存活较长时间，具有较强的吞噬能力，较高的免疫调节活性，同时免疫原性降低。
进而课题组还深入研究发生这些改变的分子免疫学机制。研究揭示了间充质干细胞临床应用可预防治疗器官移植中的排斥反应以及治疗自身免疫性疾病的相关作用机制。
赵春华教授的研究受到科技部863计划和基金委的长期支持。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Blood, 1 January 2009, Vol. 113, No. 1, pp. 46-57.
Mesenchymal stem cells induce mature dendritic cells into a novel Jagged-2–dependent regulatory dendritic cell population
Bin Zhang1,*, Rui Liu1,*, Dan Shi1, Xingxia Liu1, Yuan Chen1, Xiaowei Dou1, Xishan Zhu1, Chunhua Lu1, Wei Liang1, Lianming Liao1, Martin Zenke2, and Robert C. H. Zhao1
1 Center of Excellence in Tissue Engineering, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and School of Basic Medicine, Peking union Medical College, Beijing, China; and 2 Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Cell Biology, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University Medical School, Aachen, Germany
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), in addition to their multilineage differentiation, exert immunomodulatory effects on immune cells, even dendritic cells (DCs). However, whether they influence the destiny of full mature DCs (maDCs) remains controversial. Here we report that MSCs vigorously promote proliferation of maDCs, significantly reduce their expression of Ia, CD11c, CD80, CD86, and CD40 while increasing CD11b expression. Interestingly, though these phenotypes clearly suggest their skew to immature status, bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation could not reverse this trend. Moreover, high endocytosic capacity, low immunogenicity, and strong immunoregulatory function of MSC-treated maDCs (MSC-DCs) were also observed. Furthermore we found that MSCs, partly via cell-cell contact, drive maDCs to differentiate into a novel Jagged-2–dependent regulatory DC population and escape their apoptotic fate. These results further support the role of MSCs in preventing rejection in organ transplantation and treatment of autoimmune disease.
