Transplantation of adult spinal cord grafts into spinal cord transected rats improves their locomotor function.
Grafted embryonic central neural tissue pieces can recover function of hemisected spinal cord in neonatal rats and promote axonal growth in adults. However, spinal cord segments from adults have not been used as donor segments for allogeneic transplantation. Here, we utilized adult spinal cord tissue grafts (aSCGs) as donor constructs for repairing complete spinal cord injury (SCI). Moreover, to provide a favourable microenvironment for SCI treatment, a growth factor cocktail containing three growth factors (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurotrophin-3 and vascular endothelial growth factor), was applied to the aSCG transplants. We found that the locomotor function was significantly improved 12 weeks after transplantation of aSCGs into the spinal cord lesion site in adult rats. Transplantation of aSCGs combined with these growth factors enhanced neuron and oligodendrocyte survival and functional restoration. These encouraging results indicate that treatment of complete SCI by transplanting aSCGs, especially in the presence of growth factors, has a positive effect on motor functional recovery, and therefore could be considered as a possible therapeutic strategy for SCI.
['Shen|He|H|', 'Chen|Xi|X|', 'Li|Xing|X|', 'Jia|Ke|K|', 'Xiao|Zhifeng|Z|', 'Dai|Jianwu|J|']
D000818:Animals D001522:Behavior, Animal D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor D004594:Electrophysiology D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008124:Locomotion D009046:Motor Neurons D020933:Neurotrophin 3 D009836:Oligodendroglia D051381:Rats D011923:Rats, Nude D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley D013116:Spinal Cord D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries D058630:Spinal Cord Regeneration D019737:Transplants D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
transplantation transection spinal cord injury (SCI) function recovery adult host adult spinal cord grafts (aSCGs)