Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Studies have confirmed that neural stem cells (NSCs) and neurotrophic factor-3 (NT-3) gene modified neural cell combination transplantation can survive following transplantation and effectively promote functional recovery following spinal cord transsection. However, whether NT-3 gene-modified NSCs exert effects in damaged spinal cord and contribute to functional recovery of the spinal cord injury (SCI) rats remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the behavioral recovery of SCI rats that received transplantation of NT-3 gene-modified fetal spinal cord-derived NSCs, and the gene expression in injury location.
METHODS: Spinal cords of 30 Sprague-Dawley rats were hemisected at T9 level. The rats were randomly assigned to three groups. Cell culture medium, NSCs and NT-3 gene-modified NSCs were transplanted into the lesion site of rats of each group respectively. An additional 10 rats served as blank control group, which only received laminectomy. Following transplantation, behavior test was utilized to evaluate spinal cord functional recovery. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot assay were used to detect NT-3 and myelin basic protein expression in lesion site.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Rats in NT-3 gene -NSCs group got best results in behavioral test. Behavioral test outcomes were worst in the cell culture medium group. Compared with cell culture medium group, NT-3gene and myelin basic protein gene mRNA expression significantly upregulated in spinal cord tissue of rats from the NSCs and NT-3 gene-modified NSCs groups. Protein levels obtained similar results. Moreover, the outcomes were obvious in the NT-3 gene -modified NSCs group. These indicate that transplantation of NT-3 gene -modified NSCs can promote the differentiation of cells into oligodendrocytes in lesion site, and strongly express NT-3.