The transplantation of human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells to promote restore of the SCI rats

Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) derived from human umbilical cord blood to treat rat spinal cord injury and to provide new tactics for clinical therapy.Methods MSCs were separated and purified from human umbilical cord blood.The spinal cord semi-traverse models were established and randomly divided into three groups:sham-operation group,model group and MSCs transplantation group(BrdU labeled).Functional outcome measurements using the Basso-Beattie-Bresnehan(BBB) score were performed periodically upto post-transplantation 21d.MSCs survival and migration were observed by immunofluorescence techniques.The expression of HMGB1,NF-κB and caspase-3 were detected by immunohistochemical techniques at various time points after transplantation.Results BBB scores showed that locomotor recovery improvement in MSCs transplantation groups was greater than that in model group post-transplantation 21d(P0.05).BrdU-labeled MSCs could be seen in spinal cord injury area.The positive rate of HMGB1,NF-κB and caspase-3 expression in MSCs transplantation group were lower than that in model group,and there was a significant difference between them(P0.05).Conclusion The transplantation of MSCs derived from human umbilical cord blood could promote functional recovery of the injuried spinal cord dramatically,which provide a new way for clinical therapy.