Human Umbilical Cord-Derived Schwann-Like Cell Transplantation Combined with Neurotrophin-3 Administration in Dyskinesia of Rats with Spinal Cord Injury

• Published in: Neurochemical research Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 783 - 792
• Main Authors: Yan-Wu, Guo, Yi-Quan, Ke, Ming, Li, Ying-Qian, Cai, Xiao-Dan, Jiang, Shi-Zhong, Zhang, Wang-Ming, Zhang, Chuan-Zhi, Duan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.05.2011; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Blotting, Western; Cell Biology; Cell Differentiation; Cell Transplantation; Combined Modality Therapy; Disease Models, Animal; Dyskinesias - therapy; Female; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; Humans; Neurochemistry; Neurology; Neurosciences; Neurotrophin 3 - administration & dosage; Original Paper; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Schwann Cells - cytology; Spinal Cord Injuries - therapy; Umbilical Cord - cytology; Schwann-like cells; Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells; Cell differentiation; Spinal cord injury; Cell transplantation
• ISSN: 0364-3190; 1573-6903
• DOI: 10.1007/s11064-011-0402-9

Mesenchymal stem cells are capable of differentiating into Schwann-like cells. In this study, we induced human umbilical-cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) in vitro into neurospheres constituted by neural stem-like cells, and further into cells bearing strong morphological, phenotypic and functional resemblances with Schwann-like cells. These HUMSC-derived Schwann-like cells, after grafting into the injured area of the rats’ spinal cord injury (SCI), showed a partial therapeutic effect in terms of improving the motor function. Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) was reported to improve the local microenvironment of the grafted cells, and we, therefore, further tested the effect of Schwann-like cell grafting combined with NT-3 administration at the site of cell transplantation. The results showed that NT-3 administration significantly promoted the survival of the grafted cells in the host-injured area. Significant improvement in rats treated by Schwann-like cell grafting combined with NT-3 administration was demonstrated in the behavioral test as compared with that in animal models received the cell grafting only. These results suggest that transplantation of the Schwann-like cells combined with NT-3 administration may represent a new strategy of stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury.