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Spinal Cord Injury; UCB Transplantation Improves Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury
By Dick Ahlstrom
Pain & Central Nervous System Week
21 November 2005
2005 NOV 21 - (NewsRx.com) -- Umbilical cord blood transplantation with brain-derived neutrophic factor improves functional recovery after spinal cord injury.
According to recent research published in the journal Acta Neurochirurgica, "There have been many efforts to recover neuronal function from spinal cord injuries, but there are some limitations in the treatment of spinal cord injuries.
S.U. Kuh and colleagues at Yonsei University in Seoul wrote, "The neural stem cell has been noted for its pluripotency to differentiate into various neural cell types. The human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBs) are more pluripotent and genetically flexible than bone marrow neural stem cells. The HUCBs could be more frequently used for spinal cord injury treatment in the future."
The researchers described their study, "Moderate degree spinal cord-injured rats were classified into 3 subgroups, group A: media was injected into the cord injury site, group B: HUCBs were transplanted into the cord injury site, and group C: HUCBs with BDNF (Brain-derived neutrophic factor) were transplanted into the cord injury site. We checked the BBB scores to evaluate the functional recovery in each group at 8 weeks after transplantation. We then finally checked the neural cell differentiation with double immunofluorescence staining, and we also analyzed the axonal regeneration with retrograde labeling of brain stem neurons by using fluorogold."
"The HUCBs transplanted group improved, more than the control group at every week after transplantation, and also, the BDNF enabled an improvement of the BBB locomotion scores since the 1-week after its application (p<0.05)," the researchers reported. "Eight weeks after transplantation the HUCBs with BDNF transplanted group had more greatly improved BBB scores, than the other groups (p<0.001)."
"The transplanted HUCBs were differentiated into various neural cells, which were confirmed by double immunofluorescence staining of BrdU and GFAP & MAP-2 staining," they noted.
The authors continued, "The HUCBs and BDNF each have individual positive effects on axonal regeneration. The HUCBs can differentiate into neural cells and induce motor function improvement in the cord injured rat models. Especially, the BDNF has effectiveness for neurological function improvement due to axonal regeneration in the early cord injury stage."
"Thus the HUCBs and BDNF have recovery effects of a moderate degree for cord injured rats," they concluded.
Kuh and colleagues published their study in Acta Neurochirurgica (Functional recovery after human umbilical cord blood cells transplantation with brain-derived neutrophic factor into the spinal cord injured rat. Acta Neurochir (Wien), 2005;147(9):985-992).
For additional information, contact D.H. Yoon, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Dept. of Neurosurgery, 134 Shinchon Dong, Seoul 120752, South Korea.
The publisher's contact information for the journal Acta Neurochirurgica is: Springer Wien, Sachsenplatz 4-6, PO Box 89, A-1201 Vienna, Austria.
Keywords: Seoul, South Korea, Brain-Derived Neutrophic Factor, Human Umbilical Cord Blood Cell Transplantation, Spinal Cord Injury, Functional Recovery.
This article was prepared by Pain & Central Nervous System Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsRx.com.
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