The Effect of Human Adipose Tissue Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Growth Hormone on the Recovery of Neurological Deficits due to Experimental Spinal Cord Injury in Rat

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells(hATSCs) can be differentiated into multiple mesenchymal lineages, including bone, cartilage, and muscle. And growth hormone play important roles in the normal growth and development of the CNS. In this study, we explored whether the transplanted hATSCs and growth hormones could improve functional recoveries from rats with contusive spinal cord injury. METHODS: We divided 30 female rats, which were subjected to a weight driven implant spinal cord injury, into 3 groups with 10 rats each; Group A as a control group, group B with hATSCs transplantation on injured region, and group C with hATSCs transplantation and GH administration for 7 days. Then, we researched their neurologic functional recoveries before and 2, 4, and 8 weeks after transplantation using Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale. And we checked Y- chromosome positive cells by FISH(Fluorescent in situ hybridization) to identify the survival of transplanted mesenchymal stem cells. RESULTS: After 4 weeks of transplantation, the group B and group C showed significant improvement of neurologic function on BBB locomotor rating scale in comparison with the group A(Group A 13.1+/-0.58, Group B 14.6+/-0.69, Group C 14.9+/-0.56). Moreover, the group C displayed meaningful recovery of neurologic function after 8 weeks in comparison with group B (Group B 15.7+/-0.63, Group C 16.5+/-1.14). The group A, the control one, improved for 5 weeks after injury, and had no more recovery. On the other hand, Group B and C showed the improvement of neurologic function continuously for 9 weeks after injury. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found out that hATSCs transplantation have an effect on neurologic functional recovery of spinal cord injured rat and GH injection seems to bring the synergistic results on this good tendency.