Fig. 3

Dimethyl sulfoxide impairs the T-cell suppressive capacity, glycolysis and cellular respiration of MSCs. MSCs of various batches were pretreated with 1 or 5% DMSO for 24 h, cocultured with PBMCs from different donors and subjected to T-cell proliferation assays. Metabolic measurements were performed simultaneously. a DMSO impairs MSC-mediated CD4⁺ T-cell inhibition in a dose-dependent manner (n ≥ 4). Data were normalized to untreated MSCs. DMSO diminishes b ECAR and c OCR of MSCs dose dependently (n ≥ 4). d ECAR and e OCR of DMSO-treated MSCs correlate with their suppressive capacity toward CD4⁺ T-cells (n = 13). DMSO dimethyl sulfoxide, ECAR extracellular acidification rate, OCR oxygen consumption rate, r Pearson’s r value. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001