ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in rats with spinal cord injury (SCI) after epidermal neural crest stem cells (EPI-NCSCs) transplantation.Method EPI-NCSCs were isolated from GFP transgenic rats for transplantation.The rat SCI model was made by NYU-II impactor (10 g 25 mm) at T10 level.Then 30 SD rats were randomly divided into blank injury group (group A),DMEM transplantation group (group B),and experimental group (group C).The EPI-NCSCs were transplanted into the injured region one week after SCI.In DMEM group,the DMEM/F12 was used to substitute for the EPI-NCSCs.No treatment was done in blank injury group.The locomotor function was appraised by BBB score every week after transplantation.At sixth week after transplantation,GDNF mRNA and protein expression was detected.Result The BBB score in experimental group was significantly higher than the other two groups from two weeks after transplantation (P＜0.05).The expression of GDNF mRNA and protein in experimental group was significantly higher than the other two groups (P＜0.05).There was no significant difference between blank injury group and DMEM transplantation group (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The expression of GDNF can be up-regulated by EPI-NCSCs transplantation,which may be one of the mechanisms for EPI-NCSCs repairing SCI.