Repair of spinal cord injury by aldainoglia cell transplantation and inhibition of RhoGTPase activity.

Abstract

A possible therapy for repairing a spinal cord injury (SCI) is the effective modulation of cellular and molecular elements involved in the process of glial scarring. The aldainoglia cells are neural precursor cells with a high capacity to differentiate into neurons and promote growth, ensheathment and axonal myelination of resident neurons. These important features of the aldainoglia can be combined with the specific inhibition of RhoGTPase activity in astroglia and microglia that produces a reduction in glial proliferation, retraction of astroglial cells and production of myelin by oligodendrocytes. We have been working in experimental models of CNS injury, such as spinal cord contusion in rats and striatal lacunar infarction in mice; and we observed that administration of glycolipid inhibitor for RhoGTPase or aldainoglia cells, respectively, produced a significant increase in the functional recovery in treated animals. A therapy that combines both treatments with neuro-regenerative properties is quite desired in the treatment of SCI because a functional potentiation of neurons and oligodendrocytes, would result in a better recovery of locomotor rhythm. Here we propose that the treatment of spinal cord injuries with aldainoglia obtained from neurospheres, plus the local administration of an inhibitor of RhoGTPases have an additive effect that could be facilitate recovery after SCI.