Effect of ginseng combined with transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on functional recovery of rats with spinal cord injury / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the effect of ginseng combined with transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)on functional recovery of rats with spinal cord injury(SCI). Methods Forty-eight female Wistar rats were randomly assigned to following four groups(n=12 per group)the sham operation group was treated by opening the vertebral lamina and exposing spinal cord without SCI;the SCI model group was reproduced by using improved Allen bump method and afterwards no treatment was given;methyl prednisolone(MP)group was treated by MP pulse treatment after SCI,including intravenous injection of MP 30 mg/kg immediately after SCI and 4 hours later the same injection was repeated,and then the same intravenous injection 2 times daily,3 days in total;The ginseng+BMSCs group was treated by orally taking ginseng ultra-microgranules 300 mg/kg after SCI,twice a day for 20 days and BMSCs 5μL(concentration 1×107 cell/μL)transplantation was carried out in SCI region on the 7th day after SCI. In the above 4 groups,the ethological observation(BBB scores)was done regularly and on the 30th day after operation,silver staining was applied to investigate the changes of spinal cord,and neuro-electrophysiological tests including somatosensory evoked potential(SEP)and motor evoked potential(MEP)were performed. Results In sham operation group,after surgery the movement of both hind limbs became temporarily sluggish and on the 7th day their functions recovered to approximately normal. In SCI model group,after injury paralysis of both hind limbs occurred,while in the MP group and ginseng+BMSCs group,different degrees of functional recovery of the injured limbs developed,and the recovery in ginseng + BMSCs group was more significant. Compared with sham operation group,after surgery the BBB score was reduced markedly at various time points in SCI model group;compared to the SCI model group,the BBB scores in MP and ginseng+BMSCs groups were increased significantly,especially more remarkable in ginseng+BMSCs group(all P<0.05),and beginning from the 12th day after operation,the difference became obvious (5.23±1.22 vs. 3.61±1.03, P<0.05). Histological detection showed that in sham operation group,the structure of spinal cord was complete,neurons distributed evenly in the gray matter and a large number of silver staining positive nerve fibers paralleled to each other and arranged regularly;in SCI model group,fragmented construction was present and the defects of gray and white matters were prominent. Compared with the SCI model group, the extents of tissue necrosis in MP and ginseng + BMSCs groups were ameliorated. The neuro-electrophysiological tests demonstrated that in SCI model group,the loss of normal wave form occurred. Compared with SCI model group,in MP and ginseng+BMSCs groups,after treatment latent periods(ms)were shortened prominently in different degrees of SEP and MEP,and their peak-to-peak values(mV)were increased obviously;the improvement in potential in ginseng+BMSCs group was greater than that in MP group〔SEPlatent period(ms)3.31±0.36 vs. 4.66±0.33, peak-to-peak value(mV)0.10±0.01 vs. 0.05±0.01,MEPlatent period(ms)3.40±0.13 vs. 4.24±0.31, peak-to-peak value(mV)41.12±0.56 vs. 16.46±2.83,all P<0.05〕. Conclusion A combined treatment of ginseng and BMSCs transplantation can effectively promote the recovery of neural function for rats with SCI.