Effect of combination of neural stem cells transplantation and collagen gel scaffold on apoptosis of brain cells in rats after spinal cord injury / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Studies have shown that neural stem cells isolated from embryonic rat cerebral cortex can proliferate and differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in col agen gels. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of neural stem cells combined with col agen gel on the apoptosis of nerve cells in the brain of rats after spinal cord injury. METHODS:Forty-five spinal cord injury rat models were made through spinal cord hemisection and randomly divided into three groups. At 1 week after modeling, rats in the celltransplantation group were injected al ogeneic neural stem cellsuspension into the injured site, rats in the combination group were administered with al ogeneic neural stem cells/col agen gel suspension into the injured site, and rats in the model group received no treatment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:From 1 to 8 weeks after injury, the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotion scores in the combination group were significantly higher than those in the other two groups (P<0.05). Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that at 1 week after transplantation, there were a few necrotic cells and Bcl-2 positive cells, but a large amount of Bax positive cells in the three groups. Then, the number of Bax-and Bcl-2-positive cells was reduced gradual yin the three groups. At 8 weeks after transplantation, the number of Bax-positive cells was significantly higher in the model group than the other two group (P<0.05), but the number of Bcl-2-positive cells were dramatical y lower (P<0.05). Meanwhile, there were no necrotic cells in the three groups. These findings indicate that neural stem celltransplantation combined with col agen gel scaffold can arrest apoptosis of nerve cells in the brain of rats after spinal cord injury, and promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury.