Effects of hUCB-MSCs on recovery of neurological function and TERT expression in brain tissue of rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury

The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze the effects of human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) on the recovery of neurological function and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) expression in brain tissue of rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. A total of 100 healthy adult Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: The control group and the observation group according to the random number table method. After the model of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury was established, the rats in the observation group were treated with hUCB-MSCs (10 ml/kg), while the rats in the control group were treated with saline every day. The neurological deficit score and foot fault test were evaluated at 1, 7 and 14 days after treatment, and the rats were sacrificed at 14 days to detect the expression of TERT in brain tissue. There was no significant difference in the scores of mNSS between the two groups before the model establishment (P>0.05), but there was significant differences in two groups after the operation (P<0.05). At 1 day after the operation, the mNSS score of the two groups peaked, which was decreased in the groups with the progress of treatment. The degree of decline in the observation group was significantly greater than that in the control group (P<0.05). Similarly, there was no significant difference in the number of errors between the two groups before the model establishment (P>0.05), but there was significant difference in two groups after the operation (P<0.05). At 1 day after the operation, the number of errors also peaked, which was reduced in the groups with the progress of treatment. The degree of reduction in the observation group was significantly greater than that in the control group (P<0.05). The results of H&E staining showed it had positive reaction as nucleus or cytoplasm stained brown or yellowish brown in the observation group, while it showed neuronal shrinkage, cytoplasm and nucleus yellow dye deepening in the control group as the significant positive reaction. The gray level of the TERT protein in the brain tissue of the control group was 0.458±0.052 LOD, which was significantly lower than that in the observation group with 0.983±0.056 LOD (P<0.05). In conclusion, hUCB-MSCs can effectively improve the neurological function and the expression of TERT in brain tissue of rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, which may be helpful to reduce the ischemia-reperfusion injury of brain tissue.