Functional Recovery in Complete Spinal Cord Injury after Transplantation of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Cells in Rats

Kim, Jong Joong; Chung, Yoon Young

Abstract

Many approaches have been adopted to restore function following spinal cord injury (SCI). These have included transplantation of fetal neurons, neuronal progenitor cells, or glial cells, or transplantation of transfected cells which produce a variety of substances. The use of human umbilical cord blood cells (hUCB cells) has recently been reported to alleviate behavioral consequences of stroke injury. We report here that hUCB cells delivered intravenously in rats with compression injury of the spinal cord increase the rate behavioral recovery. Tweny-five rats were divided into 5 groups (laminectomy only, laminectomy+hUCB cells, SCI+hUCB cells devlivered at one day post-injury, SCI+hUCBcells delivered at 5 days post-injury, and SCI only). SCI was produced by compressing the spinal cord for one minute with an aneurysm clip calibrated to a closing pressure of 50 gms. Rats were assessed behaviorally at one, two and three weeks using the BBB behavioral scale, inclined platform, and extension and toe spread tests. Following behavioral testing, spinal cords from these rats were examined immunohistochemically to identify hUCB cells. Spinal cords from SCI+hUCB cells animals contained hUCB cells in the area of SCI: No hUCBcells cells were found in noninjured areas of spinal cord from these animals or in animals in which only a laminectomy was performed. Rats in the SCI+hUCBcells 1 day group were significantly different in recovery of motor function as compared to the SCI+hUCB cells 5 day group and laminectomy groups. By three weeks, SCI+hUCB cells animals were not significantly different from each other. These results indicate that hUCBcells cells may be beneficial in reversing the behavioral effects of SCI.