Transplantation of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Preserve the Salivary Glands Structure after Head and Neck Radiation in Rats

BACKGROUND: The salivary glands are one of the radiation sensitive tissues during radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Within the first weeks of radiotherapy, the radiation causes progressive loss of gland function, then continue throughout the later of the patient’s life. AIM: The present work was designed to discover the potential effect of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) injected locally and in decreasing the unwanted effects of radiation on rats salivary gland. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 6 rats used as the control group (N) and 12 rats had a single radiation dose of 13Gy in the head and neck then, they were equally allocated into two groups: Irradiated only as a group (C), Irradiated then treated with MSCs as a group (S). The animals were euthanised 7 days post radiation. Then, submandibular salivary glands were cut up; the histological examination was done. RESULTS: Histological examination of the treated group(S) shown an apparent improvement in the SG structure and function compared to the irradiated group (C), this improvement represented mainly as preserving acini diameter (mean diameter in µm group (C) 183.1 ± 4.5, in group (S) 356.3 ± 33.5 while, in (N) group 408.9 ± 5.9) and decrease in fibrotic areas in the gland (mean fibrosis parentage in group (C) 26.5 ± 5.9 in (C) group , in group (S) 11.7 ± 4.13 while in (N) group 0.2 ± 0.31). CONCLUSION: BM-MSCs has revealed to be promising in mitigating the side effects of radiotherapy on salivary glands structure.