Transplantation of Induced Neural Stem Cells Derived from Human Fibroblasts Promotes Functional Recovery of Spinal Cord Injury in Rats

Abstract

Background: Traumatic injury to the spinal cord causes cell death, demyelination, axonal degeneration, and cavitation, resulting in functional motor and sensory loss. Stem cell therapy as a promising approach for spinal cord injury (SCI) has some challenges, such as immunological responses to grafted cells. Transplantation of autologous trans-differentiated cells can be a useful strategy to overcome this problem. Materials and Methods: In this research, we transplanted human-induced neural stem cells (hiNSCs), which were trans-differentiated from adult human fibroblasts into the injured spinal cord of adult rats on day seven post-injury. Before transplantation, hiNSCs were explored for expressing NSCs general protein and genes and also, their normal karyotype was examined. After hiNSCs transplantation, behavioural tests (BBB score and grid walk tests) were performed weekly and finally histological assessment was done for exploring the cell fates and migration. Results: Our results showed the cell viability, differentiation, and migration of transplanted hiNSCs was significantly improved in the injured site of the spinal cord up to seven weeks after the SCI. Also, the behavioural analysis revealed the enhanced locomotor functions of the animals that underwent transplantation after seven weeks. Our data provide strong evidence in support of the feasibility of hiNSCs for cell-based therapy in SCI rats.