Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal (Sep 2017)

The survival of transplanted mesenchymal stem cells from humans Wharton’s jelly of the umbilical cord in the central nervous system of rats with experimental allergic encephalomyelitis after their suboccipital injection

  • Leonid D. Pichkur,
  • Mariia V. Kovalchuk,
  • Olena G. Deriabina,
  • Svitlana A. Verbovska,
  • Samuel T. Akinola,
  • Nadiia S. Shuvalova,
  • Vitalii А. Kordium

DOI
https://doi.org/10.25305/unj.112102
Journal volume & issue
no. 3
pp. 30 – 35

Abstract

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Human Wharton’s Jelly of mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) have a considerable advantage in comparison with the cells from other sources; their therapeutic potential in treating the central nervous system (CNS) diseases is higher than that of other MSCs. That’s why hWJ-MSCs can be a new alternative treatment of CNS demyelinization damages including multiple sclerosis (MS).Purpose. To study the persistence and distribution of hWJ-MSCs in different CNS segments following suboccipital transplantation into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of rats with experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE).Methods. Isolation and cultivation of hWJ-MSCs in vitro. Immunological phenotyping by flow cytometry. EAE induction. Suboccipital injection of MSCs into EAE rats cerebrospinal fluid. Persistence of hWJ-MSCs in the CNS of EAE rats was assayed by PCR in tissue samples at days 2, 3, 4 and 5 using primers for amplifying nucleic alpha satellite sequences of human 17th chromosome.Results. PCR-assays for alpha-satellite sequences revealed human DNA to be detected in the treated rats within 5 days after suboccipital injection at the peak of disease. The human DNA was traced in CSF and various segments of the spinal cord.Conclusions. The data obtained suggest that suboccipitally delivered hWJ-MSCs, survive and can migrate through the CSF from the injection site (cisterna magna) to various segments of CNS.