REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
This article is part of the Research TopicLymphocytes and Autoimmune Disease: from molecular mechanism to clinical implicationsView all 16 articles
Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Metabolic Reprogramming in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Remodeling of Bone Marrow Microenvironment and Regulation of Immune Cell Fate
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China
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Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease characterized by dysregulated immune tolerance, abnormal secretion of autoantibodies, and multi-organ damage. Among them, mutations in genetic susceptibility genes, abnormal epigenetic modifications, excessive oxidative stress, abnormal accumulation of inflammatory factors, and intestinal flora disorders are all key specific factors that lead to immune dysfunction, abnormal production of autoantibodies, and multi-organ damage in patients with SLE. The bone marrow microenvironment, as a key niche for immune cell development, plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of SLE, especially through the metabolic reprogramming of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs). Recently, studies have demonstrated that under the influence of the bone marrow microenvironment, BMSCs can undergo metabolic reprogramming, regulated by the aforementioned abnormal factors related to SLE, the key metabolic pathways such as glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism and mitochondrial metabolism are disrupted, thereby affecting their regulatory functions on various immune cells. This process plays a role in the development and progression of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases like SLE. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current knowledge regarding the metabolic regulatory mechanism of the BMSCs on the immune cells in SLE and discusses recent advances in clinical translation.
Keywords: bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells, Bone marrow microenvironment, Immune-mediated inflammatory disease, metabolic reprogramming, systemic lupus erythematosus
Received: 15 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yang, Cheng, Xiao, Gu and Dong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jun Xiao
Zhifeng Gu
Chen Dong
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