Published online Dec 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i12.1591
Peer-review started: March 21, 2020
First decision: August 22, 2020
Revised: August 24, 2020
Accepted: November 12, 2020
Article in press: November 12, 2020
Published online: December 26, 2020
Processing time: 280 Days and 11.9 Hours
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an important cause of traumatic paralysis and is mainly due to motor vehicle accidents. However, there is no definite treatment for spinal cord damage.
To assess the outcome of rat embryonic stem cells (rESC) and autologous bone marrow-derived neurocytes (ABMDN) treatment in iatrogenic SCI created in rats, and to compare the efficacy of the two different cell types.
The study comprised 45 male Wistar rats weighing between 250 and 300 g, which were divided into three groups, the control, rESC and ABMDN groups. The anesthetized animals underwent exposure of the thoracic 8th to lumbar 1st vertebrae. A T10-thoracic 12th vertebrae laminectomy was performed to expose the spinal cord. A drop-weight injury using a 10 g weight from a height of 25 cm onto the exposed spinal cord was conducted. The wound was closed in layers. The urinary bladder was manually evacuated twice daily and after each evacuation Ringer lactate 5 mL/100 g was administered, twice daily after each bladder evacuation for the first 7 postoperative days. On the 10th day, the rats underwent nerve conduction studies and behavioral assessment [Basso, Beattie, Brenham (BBB)] to confirm paraplegia. Rat embryonic stem cells, ABMDN and saline were injected on the 10th day. The animals were euthanized after 8 wk and the spinal cord was isolated, removed and placed in 2% formalin for histopathological analysis to assess the healing of neural tissues at the axonal level.
All the animals tolerated the procedure well. The BBB scale scoring showed that at the end of the first week no recovery was observed in the groups. Post-injection, there was a strong and significant improvement in rats receiving rESC and ABMDN as compared to the control group based on the BBB scale, and the Train-of-four-Watch SX acceleromyography device exhibited statistically significant (P < 0.0001) regeneration of neural tissue after SCI. Histological evaluation of the spinal cord showed maximum vacuolization and least gliosis in the control group compared to the rESC and ABMDN treated animals. In the ABMDN group, limited vacuolization and more prominent gliosis were observed in all specimens as compared to the control and rESC groups.
This study provided strong evidence to support that transplantation of rESC and ABMDN can improve functional recovery after iatrogenic SCI. The transplanted cells showed a beneficial therapeutic effect when compared to the control group.
Core Tip: We performed a comparative study of rats with iatrogenic SCI treated with control, rat embryonic stem cells and autologous bone marrow-derived neurocytes. Regeneration was assessed using three classic parameters and it was found that neurocytes were superior in the regeneration process.