title: Therapeutic activities of engrafted neural stem/precursor cells are not dormant in the chronically injured spinal cord.
abstract: The transplantation of neural stem/precursor cells (NSPCs) is a promising therapeutic strategy for many neurodegenerative disorders including spinal cord injury (SCI) because it provides for neural replacement or trophic support. This strategy is now being extended to the treatment of chronic SCI patients. However, understanding of biological properties of chronically transplanted NSPCs and their surrounding environments is limited. Here, we performed temporal analysis of injured spinal cords and demonstrated their multiphasic cellular and molecular responses. In particular, chronically injured spinal cords were growth factor-enriched environments, whereas acutely injured spinal cords were enriched by neurotrophic and inflammatory factors. To determine how these environmental differences affect engrafted cells, NSPCs transplanted into acutely, subacutely, and chronically injured spinal cords were selectively isolated by flow cytometry, and their whole transcriptomes were compared by RNA sequencing. This analysis revealed that NSPCs produced many regenerative/neurotrophic molecules irrespective of transplantation timing, and these activities were prominent in chronically transplanted NSPCs. Furthermore, chronically injured spinal cords permitted engrafted NSPCs to differentiate into neurons/oligodendrocytes and provided more neurogenic environment for NSPCs than other environments. Despite these results demonstrate that transplanted NSPCs have adequate capacity in generating neurons/oligodendrocytes and producing therapeutic molecules in chronic SCI microenvironments, they did not improve locomotor function. Our results indicate that failure in chronic transplantation is not due to the lack of therapeutic activities of engrafted NSPCs but the refractory state of chronically injured spinal cords. Environmental modulation, rather modification of transplanting cells, will be significant for successful translation of stem cell-based therapies into chronic SCI patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumamaru
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saiwai
authors.forename: Kensuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Kazu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayakawa
authors.forename: Kazuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokota
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohkawa
authors.forename: Keiichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shiba
authors.forename: Yukihide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: Gene expression; Neural stem cell; Spinal cord injury; Stem cell transplantation