Transplantation of neurospheres derived from bone marrow stromal cells promotes neurological recovery in rats with spinal cord injury

Med Mol Morphol. 2011 Sep;44(3):131-8. doi: 10.1007/s00795-010-0519-y. Epub 2011 Sep 16.

Abstract

Previous studies have revealed that cell therapy using bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) could promote motor functional recovery in animals with spinal cord injury (SCI). We describe here the development of cell biology technique and the experimental study of regeneration in SCI. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for neurological recovery by transplantation neurospheres (NS) derived from BMSCs into thoracic SCI. Adult Fisher rats were used: 45 were subjected to complete thoracic SCI performed by the balloon compression method. BMSCs were cultured in vitro to obtain NS. Seven days after thoracic SCI, groups of 15 rats each received transplants of BMSCs-NS (group A), BMSCs (group B), or injection of medium only (group C) into the SCI lesion. Rats from each group were evaluated and compared longitudinally for motor function recovery. The spinal cords (SC) of injured rats were harvested at day 21 or day 42 and prepared for histological analysis. Five weeks after transplantation, many neuronal or axonal sproutings were observed and replaced by host cells in the SCI lesion of group A. Also, transplanted BMSCs-NS expressed neuronal lineage markers. Transplanted rats could walk with weight bearing and showed recovered motor evoked potentials (MEPs).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow Transplantation*
  • Cell Aggregation
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Ectodysplasins / metabolism
  • Evoked Potentials, Motor
  • Female
  • GAP-43 Protein / metabolism
  • Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / metabolism
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Motor Activity
  • Rats
  • Rats, Inbred F344
  • Rats, Transgenic
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Recovery of Function*
  • Spinal Cord / metabolism
  • Spinal Cord / pathology
  • Spinal Cord Injuries / pathology
  • Spinal Cord Injuries / therapy*
  • Spinal Cord Regeneration
  • Stromal Cells / transplantation*
  • Thoracic Vertebrae / pathology
  • Tubulin / metabolism

Substances

  • Ectodysplasins
  • GAP-43 Protein
  • Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Tubulin
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins