Citation

Brock JH, Graham L, Staufenberg E, Im S, Tuszynski MH. J. Neurotrauma 2018; 35(9): 1069-1078.

Affiliation

University of California, San Diego, Department of Neurosciences, La Jolla, California, United States , 92037 ; mtuszynski@ucsd.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2017.5244

PMID

29279015

Abstract

Previously others and we have shown that rodent neural progenitor cells (NPCs) can support functional recovery following cervical and thoracic transection injuries. To extend these observations to a more clinically relevant model of spinal cord injury, we performed unilateral mid-cervical contusion injuries in Fischer 344 rats. Two-weeks later, E14-derived syngeneic spinal cord-derived neural progenitor cells were implanted into the lesion cavity. Control animals received either no grafts or fibroblast grafts. Neural progenitor cells differentiated into all three neural lineages (neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes) and robustly extended axons into the host spinal cord caudal and rostral to the lesion. Graft-derived axons grew into host gray matter and expressed synaptic proteins in juxtaposition with host neurons. Animals that received neural progenitor cell grafts exhibited significant recovery of forelimb motor function compared to the two control groups (ANOVA P<0.05). Thus, neural progenitor cell grafts improve forelimb motor outcomes after clinically relevant cervical contusion injury. These benefits are observed when grafts are placed two weeks after injury, a time point that is more clinically practical than acute interventions, allowing time for patients to stabilize medically, simplifying enrollment in clinical trials, and enhancing predictability of spontaneous improvement in control groups.

Language: en

Keywords

STEM CELLS; TRANSPLANTATION; TRAUMATIC SPINAL CORD INJURY