Systemic transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells can reduce cognitive and motor deficits in rats with unilateral lesions of the neostriatum.
Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that usually occurs in the third or fourth decades of life. Stem cell therapy is one of the approaches for HD treatment. Since mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to migrate into the lesioned site, we transplanted rat bone marrow-derived MSCs intravenously, following unilateral intrastriatal lesion made by quinolinic acid (QA) in Wistar rats. QA administration caused widespread neuropathological deficits similar to those found in HD, including impairments in motor and cognitive functions. Animals receiving MSCs exhibited significant improvement in motor and cognitive performance compared with sham group animals that did not receive cells. Animals were tested by apomorphine-induced rotations, beam walk, cylinder and hang wire tests at different times after cell transplantation. Results indicate that systemic transplantation of MSCs can significantly reduce the behavioral abnormalities of these animals. This method of systemic injection has a great advantage over invasive surgical techniques for transplantation of cells at the lesioned site.
Edalatmanesh
Mohammad-Amin
MA
Department of Biology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
Matin
Maryam M
MM
Neshati
Zeinab
Z
Bahrami
Ahmad-Reza
AR
Kheirabadi
Masoumeh
M
D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar