Spinal cord injury regeneration using autologous bone marrow-derived neurocytes and rat embryonic stem cells: A comparative study in rats

BACKGROUND: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an important cause of traumatic paralysis and is mainly due to motor vehicle accidents. However, there is no definite treatment for spinal cord damage. AIM: To assess the outcome of rat embryonic stem cells (rESC) and autologous bone marrow-derived neurocytes (ABMDN) treatment in iatrogenic SCI created in rats, and to compare the efficacy of the two different cell types. METHODS: The study comprised 45 male Wistar rats weighing between 250 and 300 g, which were divided into three groups, the control, rESC and ABMDN groups. The anesthetized animals underwent exposure of the thoracic 8(th) to lumbar 1(st) vertebrae. A T10-thoracic 12(th) vertebrae laminectomy was performed to expose the spinal cord. A drop-weight injury using a 10 g weight from a height of 25 cm onto the exposed spinal cord was conducted. The wound was closed in layers. The urinary bladder was manually evacuated twice daily and after each evacuation Ringer lactate 5 mL/100 g was administered, twice daily after each bladder evacuation for the first 7 postoperative days. On the 10(th) day, the rats underwent nerve conduction studies and behavioral assessment [Basso, Beattie, Brenham (BBB)] to confirm paraplegia. Rat embryonic stem cells, ABMDN and saline were injected on the 10(th) day. The animals were euthanized after 8 wk and the spinal cord was isolated, removed and placed in 2% formalin for histopathological analysis to assess the healing of neural tissues at the axonal level. RESULTS: All the animals tolerated the procedure well. The BBB scale scoring showed that at the end of the first week no recovery was observed in the groups. Post-injection, there was a strong and significant improvement in rats receiving rESC and ABMDN as compared to the control group based on the BBB scale, and the Train-of-four-Watch SX acceleromyography device exhibited statistically significant (P < 0.0001) regeneration of neural tissue after SCI. Histological evaluation of the spinal cord showed maximum vacuolization and least gliosis in the control group compared to the rESC and ABMDN treated animals. In the ABMDN group, limited vacuolization and more prominent gliosis were observed in all specimens as compared to the control and rESC groups. CONCLUSION: This study provided strong evidence to support that transplantation of rESC and ABMDN can improve functional recovery after iatrogenic SCI. The transplanted cells showed a beneficial therapeutic effect when compared to the control group.