Abstract:

BACKGROUND: How to promote the survival and migration of the neural stem cells transplanted into the injured spinal cord is the focus of the research on nerve repair.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of erythropoietin on the survival, proliferation and migration of neural stem cells transplanted into spinal cord injury rats.
METHODS: Sixty Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: spinal cord injury group, neural stem cells group and erythropoietin group. All the rats were used to make the spinal cord injury model. 7 μL(1×10⁹/L) BrdU labeled neural stem cells were transplanted into the spinal cord lesion area of rats in neural stem cells group and erythropoietin group at 7 days after modeling, and DMEM/F12 medium was transplanted into the spinal cord injury group; erythropoietin group was intraperitoneally injected with 5 000 U/kg erythropoietin, once per day and continuously injected for 7 days, the neural stem cells group and spinal cord injury group were injected with normal saline in the same dose. The spinal cord injury tissues were observed at 8 weeks after cell transplantation.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At 2 weeks after modeling, the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan score in neural stem cells group and erythropoietin group was significantly higher than that in the spinal cord injury group (P < 0.05); at 4 weeks after modeling, the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan score in the erythropoietin group was significantly higher than that in the neural stem cells group (P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence staining showed that the number of BrdU-positive cell and the migration distance of transplanted neural stem cells in the erythropoietin group were significantly higher than those in the neural stem cells group (P < 0.05). The erythropoietin could promote the survival and migration of neural stem cells in situ transplanted into the injured spinal cord, and accelerate nerve function repair.