Fig. 2

Autophagy increases MSC-mediated CD4⁺ T cell migration through CXCL8. a After treatment with different drugs for 24 h, qRT-PCR showed that 3-MA could downregulate while rapamycin could upregulate the CXCL8 expression, indicated that autophagy could regulate the expression of CXCL8 but not other chemokines. b, c Western blot and ELISA were used to confirm the protein expression/secretion of CXCL8 among different groups, which was decreased in the 3-MA group but increased in the rapamycin group. d Exogenous CXCL8 increased CD4⁺ T cell recruitment in the blank, control, and 3-MA groups, while exogenous anti-CXCL8 antibody decreased recruitment in the rapamycin group. The MSCs and MSC culture supernatant showed similar results. All the CD4⁺ T cell migration was detected by flow cytometry. Values are presented as the means ± SD of 18 samples per group. * indicates P < 0.05