Recent advances of cellular therapy for corneal graft rejection

Immune rejection is the leading cause of graft failure, and the main way for preventing corneal graft rejection is the application of immunosuppressive drugs.However, in the recent years, cellular therapy has been a new research hotspot for its targeted effect and fewer side effect.A lot of researches showed that Treg cells which are important in inducing and maintaining immunological tolerance could directly induce immune tolerance in corneal transplantation.In recent years, dendritic cells also are found to have a dual role in the immune system, except as antigen presenting cells to induce immune response.Immature or immunosuppressive cytokine-expressing dendritic cells can induce immune tolerance.Mesenchymal stem cells which have multiple differentiation potential can exert anti-inflammatory effects on immune cells and effectively inhibit organ transplant rejection in vitro and in vivo.As another hotspot besides Tregs, myeloid-derived suppressor cells can inhibit the proliferation of a broad range of immune cells (T and B cells, NK cells, and macrophages), induce T cells apoptosis, and even induce Tregs.This review provides an update of these four kinds of cells on their effects and developments in cellular therapy for experimental corneal graft rejection.