Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disorder in which myelin reactive T cells leads to oligodendrocytes degeneration and neural injury. Fingolimod (FTY-720) is an approved drug to treat MS patients with its cytoprotective effects on lymphocytes. In MS, infiltrated lymphocytes could secrete cytokines and growth factors, including FGF2 and PDGFC, which affect adjacent glial cells. In this study, the FTY-720 effects on FGF2 and PDGFC were analyzed in Jurkat cells.
Methods: Jurkat T cell line was cultured in RPMI 10% FBS, and incubated under 5% CO2. Then, Jurkat cells were treated by 1 µM FTY-720 for 24 hours. Then, RNA was extracted by RiboX reagent, and the first strand of cDNA was synthesized using M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase (TAKARA, Japan). The gene expression level was analyzed by qRT-PCR (Step-one Plus system, USA). The data were analyzed using the ddCt method, and the statistical analyses were done by t-test (Graph Pad Prism 7.0).
Results: Results: In Jurkat cells, the expression level of FGF2 significantly increased under FTY-720 treatment (6.1 fold, P=0.001); also, PDGFC expression was upregulated significantly (5.4 fold, P= 0.003). Correlation analysis among these genes indicated a positive correlation (r= 0.63, P= 0.042).
Conclusion: Discussion: Fingolimod could exert its cytoprotective effects on lymphocytes and glial cells through the regulation of FGF2 and PDGFC. These growth factors subsequently could affect glial cells, such as oligodendrocyte precursor cell proliferation.