DTI for assessing axonal integrity after contusive spinal cord injury and transplantation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells.
We describe the feasibility of using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) to study a contusive model of rat spinal cord injury following human stem cell transplantation at and around the site of injury. Rats receiving either a laminectomy or contusion injury were transplanted with oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). During the course of the study, bioluminescence imaging (BLI; up to 100 days) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs; up to 42 days) were used to evaluate cell survival and functional outcomes. Spinal cords were then analyzed ex vivo upon termination using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Improvements in fractional anisotropy (FA) at day 100 post-transplantation corresponded with cell survival and functional SSEP improvements. Thus, we illustrate the feasibility of DTI for evaluating axonal integrity in SCI after cell replacement therapies, and we provide examples utilizing OPC transplantations in a contusion rat model.
Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. angelo@bme.jhu.edu
Faith A
FA
Bazley
Amir
A
Pourmorteza
Siddharth
S
Gupta
Nikta
N
Pashai
Candace
C
Kerr
Angelo H
AH
All
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods; D058953:Neural Stem Cells; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation