[Treatment of an infant with severe neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy sequelae with transplantation of human neural stem cells into cerebral ventricle].
OBJECTIVE
Severe newborn hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) has a very high rate of disability and no effective treatment is available. The present study aimed to preliminarily evaluate the effects of human neural stem cell transplantation in treatment of severe neonatal HIE.


METHODS
The patient was a 75-day old male infant with sequelae of severe HIE who had highly delayed development of intelligence and movement and myotonia. MRI showed multiple cerebromalacia and encephalatrophy. Cells obtained from the forebrain of an 11-week old fetus were cultured and amplified for 15 days. And then the human fetal neural stem cells were injected into cerebral ventricle of this infant.


RESULTS
Twenty eight days after transplantation, remarkable improvement occurred not only in his myotonia but also in his intelligence and movement, which became similar to those of the normal infants of the same age. Positron emission tomography (PET) showed significantly increased radioactivity at temporal and occipital lobes which suggested that the cellular metabolism had increased greatly.


CONCLUSIONS
The short-term effect of NSCs transplantation on the infant with severe HIE sequelae was significant. PET suggested that the implanted NSCs survived. Many more studies are needed to evaluate long-term effects of NSC transplantation in treatment of HIE.
Luan
Zuo
Z
Department of Pediatrics, Naval General Hospital, Beijing 100037, China.
Yin
Guo-cai
GC
Hu
Xiao-hong
XH
Qu
Su-qing
SQ
Wu
Nan-hai
NH
Yan
Feng-qing
FQ
Qian
Yang-ming
YM
Jin
Hui-yu
HY
Gong
Xiao-jun
XJ
D001238:Asphyxia Neonatorum / Q000150:complications*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007276:Injections, Intraventricular; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D009474:Neurons; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011379:Prognosis; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome