Abstract
Background aims
Spinal cord injury is a devastating injury that impacts drastically on the victim's
quality of life. Stem cells have been proposed as a therapeutic strategy. Neural stem
(NS) cells have been harvested from embryonic mouse forebrain and cultured as adherent
cells. These NS cells express markers of neurogenic radial glia.
Methods
Mouse NS cells expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) were transplanted into immunosupressed
rat spinal cords following moderate contusion injury at T9. Animals were left for
2 and 6 weeks then spinal cords were fixed, cryosectioned and analyzed. Stereologic
methods were used to estimate the volume and cellular environment of the lesions.
Engraftment, migration and differentiation of NS cells were also examined.
Results
NS cells integrated well into host tissue and appeared to migrate toward the lesion
site. They expressed markers of neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes at 2 weeks
post-transplantation and markers of neurons and astrocytes at the 6-week time-point.
NS cells appeared to have a similar morphologic phenotype to radial glia, in particular
at the pial surface.
Conclusions
Although no functional recovery was observed using the Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB)
locomotor rating scale, NS cells are a potential cellular therapy for treatment of
injured spinal cord. They may be used as delivery vehicles for therapeutic proteins
because they show an ability to migrate toward the site of a lesion. They may also
be used to replace lost or damaged neurons and oligodendrocytes.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 5,
2010
Received:
June 26,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 International Society for Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
