Abstract: Objective To verify the effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in alleviating immune senescence, and to explore the main immune cell population improved by BM-MSCs. Methods Mouse spleen lymphocytes were isolated and stimulated to proliferate for 7 days for constructing a replicative aging model. Flow cytometry was used to detect the p16ink4a(p16) and p21cip1(p21) expression by T cell subpopulation in the young control group, the replicative senescence control group and the BM-MSCs co-cultured group. Results In the replicative senescence model of T lymphocytes, it was observed that CD8⁺T cells senescent significantly as compared with CD4⁺T cells after continuous proliferation. Among the naive cells and effector cell subsets of CD8⁺T cells, effector cell senescence was the most significant. BM-MSCs co-culture had no significant effect on senescent effector cells, and mainly alleviated the senescence of CD8⁺T cells by delaying the senescence of naive T cells(P＜0.01,P＜0.001). Conclusions BM-MSCs co-culture can alleviate the replicative senescence phenotype of T cells and has a more significant anti-senescence effect on CD8⁺T cells by inhibiting the initial senescence of T cells as a major mechcanism.

Key words: bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), T cell senescence, anti-aging