Behavior improvement and inflammatory regulation in Parkinson's disease rats after neural stem cell transplantation / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Stem cell transplantation can inhibit the loss of dopaminergic neurons and improve behavioral symptoms in an animal model of Parkinson's disease, which has a certain therapeutic effect. OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes of behavior symptoms and inflammatory factors in Parkinson's disease rats after neural stem cell transplantation. METHODS: Totally 108 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal control group, model group and stem cell transplantation group, 36 rats in each group. In the model and stem cell transplantation groups, 6-hydroxydopamine was injected into the striatum of rats to establish Parkinson's disease models, immediately followed by normal saline (5 μL) and 1×109/L neural stem cell suspension (5 μL), respectively. Six rats from each group was taken at each time point (1, 2, 4 weeks after cell transplantation) and subjected to intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 mg/kg apomorphine, followed by a 5-minute rotation test at 10 minutes after injection. ELISA was used to detect the levels of tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin-1β, interferon γ and interleukin-4 in the brain. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Rats in the normal control group had no rotation, while those in the stem cell transplantation and model groups presented with rotation behaviors. Moreover, the number of rotations was dramatically reduced in the stem cell transplantation group at 2 weeks after transplantation, which was significantly lower than that in the model group at 2 and 4 weeks after transplantation (P < 0.05). In both model and stem cell transplantation groups, the number of rotations was reduced significantly at 2 and 4 weeks as compared with that at 1 week after transplantation (P < 0.05). Compared with the normal control group, the levels of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin-1β were significantly increased in the model group at different time after cell transplantation (P < 0.05); compared with the model group, these levels were significantly decreased at different time after stem cell transplantation (P < 0.05). Compared with the normal control group, the levels of interferon γ and interleukin-4 were significantly increased in the model group at different time after transplantation; compared with the model group, these levels were significantly increased at 1 and 4 weeks after stem cell transplantation (P < 0.05). To conclude, neural stem cell transplantation can improve the behavior symptoms of Parkinson's disease rats, decrease the levels of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin 1β (pro-inflammatory factors), and increase the levels of interferon γ and interleukin-4 (anti-inflammatory factors).