Abstract:

BACKGROUND: There are no effective treatments for spinal cord injury. Transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) has achieved great progress in repairing spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of OECs transplantation on pathological and ultrastructural alterations of spinal cord, and the role in spinal cord injury developing.

METHODS:A total of 60 SD rats were randomly divided into blank, model, transplantation and DF12 groups, with 15 animals in each group. The entire vertebral plate of T₁₀, and partial vertebral plate of T₉ and T₁₁ of blank group were cut open, and gelatin sponge was used for hemostasis. In the model group, the spinal cord was excised. In the transplantation and DF12 groups, OECs and DF12 culture solution were injected following spinal cord excision. The incision was sutured. Two rats from each group were anesthetized 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 42, and 56 days following injury, and injured areas were observed by light microscopy and electron microscopy.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Following spinal cord injury, pathological and ultrastructural changes occurred, such as hemorrhage, edema, degeneration, necrosis, cavitation, gliacyte proliferation and nerve fiber regeneration. OECs transplantation attenuated neuronal and nerve fiber necrosis, relieved degree of pathological reaction, protected injured neurons, prevented gliacyte proliferation and increased nerve fiber regeneration. Results show that OECs transplantation ameliorated pathological reactions and promoted spinal cord injury repair.