Effects of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Neuronal Activity and Glial Cell-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression in Rats with Spinal Cord Injury

Our study intends to explore the effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on neuronal activity and GDNF expression in rats with SCI. Rats were assigned into spinal cord injury group (group S); routinely control group (group R) without spinal incision; and BMSCs group (group B) which received BMSCs treatment with n = 4 rats in each group. The neuronal cell proliferation was detected by cck-8 method, BBB score was used to detect lower limb motor function, GDNF mRNA expression was detected by qRT-PCR, GDNF protein positive expression was measured by immunohistochemistry and cell invasion was assessed by Transwell. Group B rats showed significantly higher BBB score higher than group S (P <0.05) and group R rats had higher score than group B (P <0.05). The OD value of cell proliferation in group R was significantly higher than group S and group B (P <0.05). Group R had the largest number of neuronal cell proliferation followed by group B and group S (P <0.05); the neuronal cell invasion ability of group S and group B was decreased significantly compared with Group R (all P <0.05); group B rat showed higher neuronal cell invasion ability than group S (P <0.05). The GDNF mRNA expression in group B was higher than group S (P <0.05) and lower than group R (P <0.05). The positive number of GDNF protein in group B was higher than group S (P <0.05) and lower than group R (P <0.05). In conclusion, BMSCs can significantly improve the decline of cell activity and motor capacity caused by acute SCI in rats, and can enhance the neuronal cells activity possibly by increasing GDNF expression in neuronal cells and improving their lower limbs motor function.