A Study of the Chemotaxic Effect of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor on Bone Marrow Stromal Cells in Treatment of Rats with Cerebral Ischemia

Objective: To explore the chemotaxic effect of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) on bone marrow stromal cells(BMSCs) in treating rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO).Methods: Primary BMSCs,which were obtained from the bone marrow in the hindlimbs of two-month-old rats,were amplified,identified and marked by BrdU in vitro.The acute middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO) model of rats was established using Longa modified method.Twenty-four hours later,rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion were randomly divided into three groups.The rats in control group(n=10) were treated with normal saline and the ones in BMSCs treatment group(n=10) were treated with BMSCs,which were introduced into the cisterna magna.The ones in BMSCs+VEGF treatment group(n=10) were treated with both BMSCs and VEGF in the same way.The brain tissues were obtained at one week or four weeks after the treatment and HE staining and BrdU immunohistochemical staining techniques were used to the brain sections.Results: No BrdU positive cells were observed in the control group.In contrast,there were a considerable BrdU positive cells around the infarction areas at one week which were detected in both the experimental groups.At week 1 and 4,BrdU positive cells around the infarction areas in rats of BMSCs+VEGF treatment group were significantly more numerous than that in the BMSCs treatment group.Conclusion: BMSCs could migrate towards ischemic areas when administered into the cisterna magna and exogenous VEGF might be of chemotaxic effect on the migration of BMSCs.