Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for Parkinson’s disease:a feasibility study / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Stem cel s can be induced to differentiate into dopaminergic neurons in vivo and in vitro, which provides a theoretical basis for stem cel transplantation in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease OBJECTIVE:To explore the feasibility and mechanism of intracerebral transplantation of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cel s for treatment of Parkinson’s disease rats. METHODS:Intracerebral injection of 6-hydroxydopamine was used to make Parkinson’s disease models in SD rats. Twenty-two model rats were randomized into cel transplantation group (n=12) and control group (n=10) and respectively injected intracerebral y with umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cel suspension and PBS. At 1-8 weeks after cel transplantation, intra-abdominal injection of apomorphine was performed every week to observe the rotation behaviors of rats;at the 2nd and 8th weeks, rat’s striatum and substantia nigra were taken for immunohistochemistry staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The rotation behaviors were gradual y decreased with time in the cel transplantation, but had no changes in the control group. At 3-8 weeks after transplantation, there were significant differences in the rotation behaviors between the two groups (P<0.05). At 2 weeks after transplantation, tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cel s were found within and around the striatum of the cel transplantation group;but there were no exogenous cel s in the control group. At 8 weeks after transplantation, there were stil active cel s and tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cel s in the striatum of cel transplantation group, and there was no tyrosine hydroxylase expression in the striatum of the control group. These findings suggest that transplanted umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cel s can survive in the brain that are positive for tyrosine hydroxylase, which can improve the behavior abnormalities of Parkinson’s disease rats.