Effects of Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Transplantation through CSF on the Subacute and Chronic Spinal Cord Injury in Rats

It has been demonstrated that the infusion of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) through the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has beneficial effects on acute spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats. The present study examined whether BMSC infusion into the CSF is effective for subacute (1- and 2-week post-injury), and/or chronic (4-week post-injury) SCI in rats. The spinal cord was contused by dropping a weight at the thoracic 8-9 levels. BMSCs cultured from GFP-transgenic rats of the same strain were injected three times (once weekly) into the CSF through the fourth ventricle, beginning at 1, 2 and 4 weeks post-injury. At 4 weeks after initial injection, the average BBB score for locomotor assessment increased from 1.0–3.5 points before injection to 9.0-10.9 points in the BMSC-injection subgroups, while, in the PBS (vehicle)-injection subgroups, it increased only from 0.5–4.0 points before injection to 3.0-5.1 points. Numerous axons associated with Schwann cells extended longitudinally through the connective tissue matrices in the astrocyte-devoid lesion without being blocked at either the rostral or the caudal borders in the BMSC-injection subgroups. A small number of BMSCs were found to survive within the spinal cord lesion in SCI of the 1-week post