Effect Of Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells Transplantation In Expression Of Nestin And Synapsin I After Acute Transection Spinal Cord Injury In Rats

Objective: To investigate the effects and significance of site transplantation of allogenic bone marrow mononuclear cells(BMMNCs) on the expression of nestin and synapsin I in spinal cord transected injury local micro-environment.Methods: From a pool of 100 clean grade Wistar rats(Irrespective of gender), 96 rats were randomly selected and subdivided into three groups: Sham operation group with 32 rats had laminectomy done without inducing spinal cord injury; The model control group with 32 rats had laminectomy done followed by induction of complete spinal cord transected injury; Cell transplantation group with 32 rats, after induction of complete spinal cord transected injury treatment with BMMNCs transplantation was initiated. Nestin and Synapsin expression in all rats in each group were assessed on day 3, week1, week2 and week4 respectively using immunohistochemical and RT-PCR techniques. Spread of Nestin positive and Synapsin I positive products along the spinal cord were assessed by use of MIAS-2000 image processing system analysis. Optical density of these products were then measured. Statistical data analysis was done using SPSS17.0. Inter group comparison, uniform variance comparison analysis was done using completely random design data, while paired sample comparison done with the Q test; For non-uniform variance, multiple samples were compared using design rank sum test with Kruskal-Wallis method, whereas paired samples rank sum test with Nemenyi method. P value of P<0.05 was regarded statistically significant, and P<0.01 regarded highly statistically significant.Results: 1.There was no significant change and had normal BBB locomotor function in sham-surgery group at each time point after surgery. Initially, both cell transplanted and control group had severe locomotor dysfunction after injury. There was gradual improvement in cell transplanted group. At 4 weeks after injury, BBB hind limb locomotor function score of cell transplanted group was significantly higher than control group(p<0.05).2. RT-PCR and image processing system analysis results for model control group showed increased nestin expression within the damaged zone day3 post injury, reaching peak level at 2 weeks then significantly down regulated after 4 weeks. For cell transplantation group nestin expression around spinal cord injury zone increased day 3 post injury and reached the peak level at 1 week, then subsequently significantly down regulated after 4 weeks. At each stage there existed significant statistical difference between sham surgery group and model control group and cell transplantation group(P<0.05). Synapsin I expression appeared day 3 post injury within the damaged area, but at each time point the expression in the model control group and cell transplantation group were lower than the sham operation group. However, synapsin I in cell transplantation group was higher than that of the model control group(P < 0.05).Conclusions:Allogenic bone marrow mononuclear cells transplantation implanted the completely transected spinal cord injury promote the recovery of hindlimb motor function;transplantation bone marrow mononuclear cells may alter the local microenvironment and regulate upwards the expression of nestin and synapsin I in the spinal cord injury model.