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Neurotrophin Expressions in Neural Stem Cells Grafted Acutely to Transected Spinal Cord of Adult Rats Linked to Functional Improvement

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Abstract

It is well known that neural stem cells (NSC) could promote the repairment after spinal cord injury, but the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. This study showed that the transplantation of NSC significantly improved hindlimb locomotor functions in adult rats subjected to transection of the spinal cord. Biotin dextran amine tracing together with the stimulus experiment in motor sensory area showed that little CST regeneration existed and functional synaptic formation in the injury site. Immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR demonstrated the secretion of NGF, BDNF, and NT-3 by NSC in vitro and in vivo, respectively. However, only mRNA expression of BDNF and NT-3 but not NGF in injury segment following NSC transplantation was upregulated remarkably, while caspase-3, a crucial apoptosis gene, was downregulated simultaneously. These provided us a clue that the functional recovery was correlated with the regulation of BDNF, NT-3, and caspase-3 in spinal cord transected rats following NSC transplantation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Seng-Kee Leong for his valuable comments on this manuscript. This research was supported by a grant from the China National Science Foundation (No. 30260125) and the New York-China Medical Board (CMB00-722).

Conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Ying-Li Gu

  2. Institute of Neuroscience, Kunming Medical College, Kunming, 650031, China

    Lu-Wei Yin, Jia Liu & Ting-Hua Wang

  3. Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, CAMS, Beijing, China

    Lian-Feng Zhang

  4. Translational Neuroscience Center, Institute of Neurological Disease, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Su-Juan Liu & Ting-Hua Wang

  5. Department of Neurology, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China

    Zhuo Zhang

Authors
  1. Ying-Li Gu
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  2. Lu-Wei Yin
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  3. Zhuo Zhang
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  4. Jia Liu
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  5. Su-Juan Liu
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  6. Lian-Feng Zhang
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  7. Ting-Hua Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ting-Hua Wang.

Additional information

Ying-Li Gu, Lu-Wei Yin, Lian-Feng Zhang, and Ting-Hua Wang have contributed equally to this study.

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Gu, YL., Yin, LW., Zhang, Z. et al. Neurotrophin Expressions in Neural Stem Cells Grafted Acutely to Transected Spinal Cord of Adult Rats Linked to Functional Improvement. Cell Mol Neurobiol 32, 1089–1097 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-012-9832-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-012-9832-4

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