Effects of neural cells transplantation on rat model of Parkinson's disease / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effects of embryonic dopaminergic neurons,mesencephalon-derived neural stem cells with or without pre-differentiation as grafts in the treatment of Parkinson's disease(PD) in SD rats.Methods Forty SD Parkinsonian rats were randomly assigned to four groups as follows normal saline grafted group(A),mesencephalon-derived neural stem cells without pre-differentiation grafted group(B),embryonic dopaminergic neurons grafted group(C) and mesencephalon-derived neural stem cells with pre-differentiation grafted group(D).Normal saline and different cells were transplanted into the rat's striatum by stereotactic technique.Therapeutic effects were evaluated based on the improvement of rat's rotation behavior at 2nd,4th and 8th week after operation and survival of tyrosine hydroxylase(TH)-immunoreactive(TH-ir) cells at 8th week after operation.Results No obvious amelioration in number of rotation was found in group A(F=0.294,P=0.830).In group B,the number of rotation was decreased after operation,but the difference was not significant compared with that before operation(F=0.335,P=0.800).The numbers of rotation were obviously decreased in group C(F=26.838,P=0.000) and group D(F=14.571,P=0.000) at 8th week after operation,but no significant difference was found between the two groups(P=0.764).TH immunohistochemical staining showed that the number of TH positive cells was 665?264 in group D,679?286 in group C,80?36 in group B,and 0 in group A,and no significant difference existed between group C and D(P=0.548).Conclusion As grafts,both embryonic dopaminergic neurons and mesencephalon-derived neural stem cells with pre-differentiation can improve the rotational behavior and cellular morphology of Parkinsonian rats after neural cells transplantation.