Treatment of traumatic brain injury in female rats with intravenous administration of bone marrow stromal cells.
OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of bone marrow stromal cells administered intravenously to female rats subjected to traumatic brain injury.


METHODS
We injected marrow stromal cells harvested from male rat bone marrow (n = 24) into the tail vein of the female rat (n = 8) 24 hours after traumatic brain injury; the rats were killed at Day 7 or 14 after treatment. The neurological function of the rats was evaluated using the rotarod test and the neurological severity score. The distribution of the male donor cells in brain, heart, lung, kidney, liver, muscle, spleen, and bone marrow of the female recipient rats was measured by identifying Y chromosome-positive cells using fluorescent in situ hybridization.


RESULTS
We found that marrow stromal cells injected intravenously significantly reduced motor and neurological deficits compared with control groups by Day 15 after traumatic brain injury (P < 0.05, analysis of covariance for repeated measures). The transplanted cells preferentially engrafted into the parenchyma of the injured brain and expressed the neuronal marker NeuN and the astrocytic marker glial fibrillary acidic protein. Marrow stromal cells were also found in other organs in female rats subjected to traumatic brain injury without any obvious adverse effects.


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that the intravenous administration of marrow stromal cells may be a promising therapeutic strategy that warrants further investigation for patients with traumatic brain injury.
Mahmood
A
A
Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Health Sciences Center, 2799 West Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI 48202, USA. nsaam@neuro.hfh.edu
Lu
D
D
Wang
L
L
Li
Y
Y
Lu
M
M
Chopp
M
M
D000818:Animals; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D015342:DNA Probes; D005260:Female; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D014998:Y Chromosome
D015342:DNA Probes