https://www.selleckchem.com/products/gne-781.html 727, 71.7%, and 75.2%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of conventional US (Z = -2.403; P = .016; Z = -5.330; P  less then  .001; and Z = -2.390; P = .017). The specificity of the model was 73.7%, which was lower than that of conventional US (Z = 3.508; P  less then  .001). CONCLUSIONS The preoperative prediction model established via conventional US and CEUS may be helpful to evaluate CLNM in patients with PTC and determine the appropriate treatment options. © 2020 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a critical role in immune tolerance. The scarcity of Treg therapy clinical trials in humans has been largely due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient Treg numbers. We performed a preclinical investigation on the potential of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to expand Treg in vitro to support future clinical trials. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors were cocultured with allogeneic bone marrow-derived MSCs expanded under xenogeneic-free conditions. Our data show an increase in the counts and frequency of CD4+ CD25high Foxp3+ CD127low Treg cells (4- and 6-fold, respectively) after a 14-day coculture. However, natural Treg do not proliferate in coculture with MSCs. When purified conventional CD4 T cells (Tcon) are cocultured with MSCs, only cells that acquire a Treg-like phenotype proliferate. These MSC-induced Treg-like cells also resemble Treg functionally, since they suppress autologous Tcon proliferation. Importantly, the DNA methylation profile of MSC-induced Treg-like cells more closely resembles that of natural Treg than of Tcon, indicating that this population is stable. The expression of PD-1 is higher in Treg-like cells than in Tcon, whereas the frequency of PDL-1 increases in MSCs after coculture. TGF-β levels are also significantly increased MSC cocultures. Overall, our data suggest that Treg enrichment by MSCs