Abstract
BackgroundChronic Spinal Cord injury is a common, severe, and medically untreatable disease. Since the functional outcomes of acute and experimental chronic spinal cord injury have been shown to improve with stem cell therapy, a case study was conducted to test if the application of stem cell also regenerates chronic SCI dysfunction. Transplantation of foetal bone marrow stem cells was applied in seven dogs with chronic spinal cord injury. Magnetic resonance images and assessments of symptoms according to the Olby scale were used to diagnose the severity of injury.ResultAll dogs improved locomotor and sensory function when examined 90 days after surgery, and showed increased movement of the hind limbs, and were able to stand upright, as well as to take small steps. Tail tone was observed in seven dogs, pain reflexes and defecation return were observed in five dogs.ConclusionThe transplantation of bone marrow stem may be a promising, reliable and safe treatment for chronic spinal cord injury.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2050-490X-2-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Chronic Spinal Cord injury is a common, severe, and medically untreatable disease
Spinal cord lesions are commonly reported in veterinary medicine, especially in dogs, where they usually occur in association with traumas that are induced by prolapsed intervertebral discs or exogenous sources such as motor vehicle accidents [4,5,1]
We showed in the current case study that adult dogs with chronic SCI could be successfully treated with the transplantation of foetal canine bone marrow stem cells
Summary
Chronic Spinal Cord injury is a common, severe, and medically untreatable disease. Transplantation of foetal bone marrow stem cells was applied in seven dogs with chronic spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord injury (SCI) is a disease with devastating effect on dogs, including paresis or paralysis and/or urinary and faecal incontinence. Chronic SCI is regarded as a medically untreatable condition and there is no effective treatment [1,2,3]. Clinical signs in dogs are similar to those encountered in human patients, and dogs that suffer from severe SCI have the same poor prognosis for neurological recovery as their human counterparts [7]. The severity of the neurological signs are graded as follows: grade I (only spinal hyperaesthesia), grade II
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