FK506 promotes repair of injured spinal cord pathway after neural stem cell transplantation / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the effect of tacrolimus(FK506)in promoting repair of the injured spinal cord pathway after neural stem cell transplantation in rats. Methods A neurysm clip was used to compress the T8 spinal cord segment of SD rats under microscope to establish model of spinal cord injury.The rats were randomly divided into three groups seven days after injury,ie,control group (injection of normal saline at the injury center),transplantation group(injection of neural stem cells,NSCs,at the injury center),FK506 group(injection of NSCs at the injury center plus 7 days of intrapernerve conduction was compared by using the Basso-Beatfle-Bresnahan (BBB) scale,BDA tracing,somatosensory evoked potential(SEP)and motor evoked potentials(MEP)monitoring at 1,2,4 and 8weeks. Results The motor function of the hind limb after injury was recovered in various degrees with time,with the most significant recovery at 4 weeks.The BBB score reached 6,the maximum at 8 weeks.BDA tracing showed that some nerve fibers were found crossing the injured center of the spinal cord one week later in FK506 group and cell transplantation group,that BDA-positive labeled corticospinal tract fibets were seen across the injury site in all groups by the end ofthe eight weeks.In the FKS06 group,the regeneration could be observed even as 1.7 cm away from tlle injury center.SEP latency was significantly shorter in the FK506 group after two weeks(P<0.05)and the MEP latency in the FK506 group was shortened significantly at four weeks compared with the other groups(P<0.05),indicating that the immunosuppressants could promote the recovery of the injured spihal cord,shorten the latency of SEP and MEP，improve SEP at early stage and MEP at late stage．Conclusions Systemic application immuno suppressive agents FK506 plays an important role in neuroprotection and neurotrophy，which promotes the repair of the injured spinal cord after neural stem cell transplantation．