Monash University is one of Osaka University's Global Knowledge Partners, which is a strategic partnership aimed at developing high-quality and sustainable research and education programs that can contribute to the resolution of global issues.

Collaborating with Professor AKIRA Shizuo from IFReC, a research team led by Associate Professor Mikaël Martino from Monash University, who also held a cross-appointment position at Osaka University, recently published a significant advancement in regenerative medicine in Nature Communications.

Investigators are constantly aiming to identify new therapeutic approaches for regenerative medicine. Recent strategies have focused on harnessing the power of the body’s tissue healing and repair mechanisms, including anti-inflammatory signaling molecules and immune cells.

In a recent article, Professor AKIRA and Associate Professor Martino describe a potential new method involving administering regulatory T cells (Tregs) to enhance tissue healing. Following tissue injury, certain immune cells initiate a pro-inflammatory response. To prevent chronic inflammation and further damage or disease, there must be a transition to an anti-inflammatory response to complete the healing process. Although scientists have previously attempted to support regenerative medicine by modulating a patient’s own immune cells, recent developments have seen researchers testing the effects of delivering specific cell types that can regulate both the immune system and tissue healing.

In this study, the team used a mouse model to simultaneously examine bone regeneration, muscle regeneration, and skin repair, ensuring the injuries were severe enough that therapeutic intervention was necessary. Using a cell delivery method called fibrin hydrogel, they then locally delivered Tregs to the injured areas.  

Compared with those administered fibrin hydrogel without Tregs, mice given Tregs showed enhanced bone volume and coverage over injured cranial areas, higher amounts of muscle tissue and larger muscle fiber size, and faster skin wound closure.

Further mechanistic investigation indicated that the administered Tregs take on an injury-specific phenotype once in the damaged area. In doing so, the Tregs display increased expression levels of genes related to immunomodulation and tissue healing. Additional experiments demonstrated that the Tregs can cause the monocytes and macrophages in these tissues to switch to an anti-inflammatory state, specifically by secreting signaling molecules such as interleukin-10 (IL-10).

Overall, this study provides evidence of the strong potential of using Tregs as a cell-based therapy for regenerative medicine. These data will help develop innovative treatment methods that can promote tissue healing.

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The study can be read on the following website:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51353-2