Preserved Hippocampal Glucose Metabolism on 18F-FDG PET after Transplantation of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Chronic Epileptic Rats

• Published in: Journal of Korean Medical Science Vol. 30; no. 9; pp. 1232 - 1240
• Main Authors: Park, Ga Young, Lee, Eun Mi, Seo, Min-Soo, Seo, Yoo-Jin, Oh, Jungsu S, Son, Woo-Chan, Kim, Ki Soo, Kim, Jae Seung, Kang, Joong Koo, Kang, Kyung-Sun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Korea (South) Korean Academy of Medical Sciences 01.09.2015; The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences; 대한의학회
• Subjects: Animals; Chronic Disease; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation - methods; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - metabolism; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - pathology; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - therapy; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - pharmacokinetics; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - metabolism; Hippocampus - pathology; Hippocampus - surgery; Male; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation - methods; Original; Original Article; Radiopharmaceuticals; Radiopharmaceuticals - pharmacokinetics; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tissue Distribution; Treatment Outcome; 의학일반; Animal Model of Chronic Epilepsy; Cell Therapy; Lithium-pilocarpine; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; Positron-emission Tomography
• ISSN: 1011-8934; 1598-6357
• DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2015.30.9.1232

Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) may be a promising modality for treating medial temporal lobe epilepsy. (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a noninvasive method for monitoring in vivo glucose metabolism. We evaluated the efficacy of hUCB-MSCs transplantation in chronic epileptic rats using FDG-PET. Rats with recurrent seizures were randomly assigned into three groups: the stem cell treatment (SCT) group received hUCB-MSCs transplantation into the right hippocampus, the sham control (ShC) group received same procedure with saline, and the positive control (PC) group consisted of treatment-negative epileptic rats. Normal rats received hUCB-MSCs transplantation acted as the negative control (NC). FDG-PET was performed at pre-treatment baseline and 1- and 8-week posttreatment. Hippocampal volume was evaluated and histological examination was done. In the SCT group, bilateral hippocampi at 8-week after transplantation showed significantly higher glucose metabolism (0.990 ± 0.032) than the ShC (0.873 ± 0.087; P < 0.001) and PC groups (0.858 ± 0.093; P < 0.001). Histological examination resulted that the transplanted hUCB-MSCs survived in the ipsilateral hippocampus and migrated to the contralateral hippocampus but did not differentiate. In spite of successful engraftment, seizure frequency among the groups was not significantly different. Transplanted hUCB-MSCs can engraft and migrate, thereby partially restoring bilateral hippocampal glucose metabolism. The results suggest encouraging effect of hUCB-MSCs on restoring epileptic networks.