Umbilical Cord Cell Therapy Improves Spatial Memory in Aging Rats.

Marianne Lehmann,Maria F Zappa-Villar,Paula C Reggiani,Rodolfo G Goya,Gustavo R Morel,Mariana G García,Martina Canatelli-Mallat,Guillermo Mazzolini

doi:10.1007/s12015-019-09895-2

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the potential of adult stem cells for implementing regenerative medicine in the brain. We assessed the effect of intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of human umbilical cord perivascular cells (HUCPVCs) on spatial memory of senile (27 mo) female rats, using intact senile counterparts as controls. Approximately one third of the animals were injected in the lateral ventricles with a suspension containing 4.8 X 105 HUCPVC in 8μl per side. The other third received 4.8 X 105 transgenic HUCPVC overexpressing Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and the last third of the rats received no treatment. Spatial memory performance was evaluated using a modified version of the Barnes maze test. In order to evaluate learning ability as well as spatial memory retention, we assessed the time spent (permanence) by animals in goal sector 1 (GS1) and 3 (GS3) when the escape box was removed. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the prescence of Dil-labeled HUCPVC in coronal sections of treated brains. The HUCPVC were located in close contact with the ependymal cells with only a few labeled cells migrating into the brain parenchyma. After treatment with naïve or IGF-1 transgenic HUCPVC, permanence in GS1 and GS3 increased significantly whereas there were no changes in the intact animals. We conclude that HUCPVC injected icv are effective to improve some components of spatial memory in senile rats. The ready accessibility of HUCPVC constitutes a significant incentive to continue the exploration of their therapeutic potential on neurodegenerative diseases.

Highlights

There is a growing interest in the therapeutic potential of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the brain
Dil-fluorescence in coronal sections of human umbilical cord perivascular cells (HUCPVCs)-injected brains revealed that five days after injection, Dil-labeled cells were located in close contact with the ependymal cells (Fig. 1b)
For GS3, in the intact senile rats there was no significant difference between pre- and posttreatment whereas in the HUCPVC and HUCPVC+Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) groups the time spent in GS3 was significantly longer at PT1, but not PT2, than at pre- treatment (Fig. 2b)

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing interest in the therapeutic potential of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the brain. Adult tissues are a frequent source of MSCs, they can be obtained from birth-associated tissues including placenta, amnion, and umbilical cord with the advantage of their availability, avoiding the need for invasive procedures and eliminating other ethical concerns. A number of MSC types can be obtained from.

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