Intrathecal injection of bone marrow stromal cells attenuates neurologic injury after spinal cord ischemia.
BACKGROUND
It has been shown that transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) into the ischemic brain improves functional outcome. We sought to investigate whether intrathecal injection of MSCs can attenuate neurologic injury of spinal cord ischemia.


METHODS
Rabbit MSCs were expanded in vitro and were pre-labeled with bromodeoxyuridine. Spinal cord ischemia was induced in rabbits by infrarenal aortic occlusion. Group A and control A were subjected to a 20-minute ischemia and the ischemic duration was extended to 30 minutes in group B and control B. Two days before spinal cord ischemia, 1 x 10(8) MSCs were intrathecally injected into groups A and B, whereas vehicle alone was injected into the control groups. Hind-limb motor function was assessed during a 14-day recovery period with Tarlov criteria, and then histologic examination was performed.


RESULTS
Marrow stromal cells survived and engrafted into the spinal cord 2 days after transplantation, and more MSCs were found in the lumbar spinal cord (ischemic segment) than in the thoracic spinal cord (nonischemic segment) at 14 days. Compared with their respective control groups, Tarlov scores were significantly higher in both groups A and B (p < 0.05, group A vs control A, at 2, 7, and 14 days; p < 0.05, group B vs control B, at 1, 2, 7, and 14 days, respectively). The number of intact motor neurons was much higher in the two experimental groups (p < 0.01 vs the corresponding control groups, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Intrathecal injection of MSCs attenuates ischemic injury of spinal cord.
Shi
Enyi
E
First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan.
Kazui
Teruhisa
T
Jiang
Xiaojing
X
Washiyama
Naoki
N
Yamashita
Katsushi
K
Terada
Hitoshi
H
Bashar
Abul Hasan Muhammad
AH
D000818:Animals; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D002465:Cell Movement; D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000637:transplantation; D003250:Constriction; D006085:Graft Survival; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000503:physiopathology; D007278:Injections, Spinal; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011817:Rabbits; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology; D020760:Spinal Cord Ischemia / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D013346:Subarachnoid Space; D013997:Time Factors