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Embryonic and adult stem cells promote raphespinal axon outgrowth and improve functional outcome following spinal hemisection in mice
- Source :
- European Journal of Neuroscience. 30:833-846
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2009.
-
Abstract
- Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in permanent neurological deficits below the injury site. Serotonergic raphespinal projections promote functional recovery after SCI, but spontaneous regeneration of most severed axons is limited by the glial cyst and scar that form at the lesion site. Stem cell (SC) transplantation offers a promising approach for inducing regeneration through the damaged area. Here we compare the effects of transplantation of embryonic neural precursors (NPs) or adult mesenchymal SCs, both of which are potential candidates for SC therapy. The spinal cord was hemisected at the L2 neuromer in adult mice. Two weeks post-injury, we transplanted neural precursors or mesenchymal SCs into the cord, caudal to the hemisection. Injured mice without a graft served as controls. Mice were tested for functional recovery on a battery of motor tasks, then killed and analysed for survival of grafted cells, for effects of engraftment on the local cellular environment and for the sprouting of serotonergic axons. Both types of SCs survived and were integrated into the host tissue, but only the NPs expressed neuronal markers. All transplanted animals displayed an increased number of serotonin-positive fibres caudal to the hemisection, compared with untreated mice. And both cell types led to improved motor performance. These results point to a therapeutic potential for such cell grafting.
- Subjects :
- Male
Serotonin
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
Cell Survival
Fluorescent Antibody Technique
Biology
Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation
Mice
medicine
spinal cord injury
stem cell
transplantation
Animals
Gliosis
Spinal cord injury
Cells, Cultured
Embryonic Stem Cells
Spinal Cord Injuries
Analysis of Variance
Lumbar Vertebrae
General Neuroscience
Regeneration (biology)
Mesenchymal stem cell
Cell Differentiation
Recovery of Function
medicine.disease
Spinal cord
Embryonic stem cell
Axons
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Transplantation
medicine.anatomical_structure
Stem cell
Neuroscience
Adult stem cell
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14609568 and 0953816X
- Volume :
- 30
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- European Journal of Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8a0e025c003d19c72447091b1cd07c29