Electro-acupuncture promotes survival, differentiation of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells as well as functional recovery in the spinal cord-transected rats.
BACKGROUND
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the potential tools for treatment of the spinal cord injury; however, the survival and differentiation of MSCs in an injured spinal cord still need to be improved. In the present study, we investigated whether Governor Vessel electro-acupuncture (EA) could efficiently promote bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) survival and differentiation, axonal regeneration and finally, functional recovery in the transected spinal cord.


RESULTS
The spinal cords of adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were completely transected at T10, five experimental groups were performed: 1. sham operated control (Sham-control); 2. operated control (Op-control); 3. electro-acupuncture treatment (EA); 4. MSCs transplantation (MSCs); and 5. MSCs transplantation combined with electro-acupuncture (MSCs+EA). After 2-8 weeks of MSCs transplantation plus EA treatment, we found that the neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), cAMP level, the differentiation of MSCs, the 5-HT positive and CGRP positive nerve fibers in the lesion site and nearby tissue of injured spinal cord were significantly increased in the MSCs+EA group as compared to the group of the MSCs transplantation or the EA treated alone. Furthermore, behavioral test and spinal cord evoked potentials detection demonstrated a significantly functional recovery in the MSCs +EA group.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that EA treatment may promote grafted MSCs survival and differentiation; MSCs transplantation combined with EA treatment could promote axonal regeneration and partial locomotor functional recovery in the transected spinal cord in rats and indicate a promising avenue of treatment of spinal cord injury.
Ding
Ying
Y
Division of Neuroscience, Department of Histology and Embryology, Guangzhou, PR China. dingying@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Yan
Qing
Q
Ruan
Jing-Wen
JW
Zhang
Yan-Qing
YQ
Li
Wen-Jie
WJ
Zhang
Yu-Jiao
YJ
Li
Yan
Y
Dong
Hongxin
H
Zeng
Yuan-Shan
YS
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D002470:Cell Survival; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D015671:Electroacupuncture / Q000379:methods*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020127:Recovery of Function; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome