Functional Recovery of Spinal Cord Injury Following Application of Intralesional Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells Embedded in Polymer Scaffold – Two Year Follow-up in a Canine

Abstract

Background: Bone marrow derived pluripotent stem cells hold a great promise for therapeutic repair of injured central nervous system. This report is on a six-month old paraplegic Boxer breed canine with traumatic spinal cord injury at the level of T12, which functionally recovered following intralesional transplantation of autologous Bone Marrow Mono Nuclear Cells (BMMNCs) seeded on a Thermoreversible gelation polymer (TGP) combined with intravenous Cell Transplantation. Materials and Methods: Thirty ml of Bone Marrow was aspirated and BMMNCs were isolated. From the total BMMNCs isolated, 20 x 10 6 cells were seeded in 1.5 ml of TGP and implanted at the site of injured spinal cord. A fraction of BMMNCs isolated were stored at-80deg C from which 4.16 x 10 6 BMMNCs were thawed and transfused intravenously by suspending in 2ml saline on the 19th post-operative day. The animal was followed up by assessment every two weeks for a period of two years. Results: Recovery of motor and sensory functions were noticed on the 53rd day, attempt for standing on the 79th day and ambulation on the 98th day after the initial cell transplantation. The animal had satisfactory ambulation on the 133rd day and thereafter the life style of the animal was gradually restored to normalcy. Status quo of this recovery has been maintained for the past two years. Conclusion: The outcome proves the safety of intralesional transplantation of autologous BMMNCs embedded in TGP in spinal cord injury and makes us recommend the same for more number of similar cases.

In vitro culture and characterization of enteric neural precursor cells from human gut biopsy specimens using polymer scaffold

“…Because transplantation of neurospheres from fetal and post natal intestine derived neural crest cells has already proven to produce functional neurons in the post natal colon of mice (18), further studies asking whether TGP can be used as a carrier for NLB transplantation in aganglionic gut models to help retain the neural progenitors in the region where they should re-colonize and form neural; glial cells are warranted. Suggesting TGP as a carrier for transplantation of NLBs is based upon earlier studies in which TGP was employed for transplantation of stem cells, progenitor cells and adult cells in animal models (19)(20)(21). The present study is only a preliminary study and extensive studies are warranted before this approach could be standardized and considered for treatment of Hirschsprung's disease.…”

Role of regeneration in tissue repairing and therapies

“…TRH also stimulates wound closure and formation of neo-epidermis in organ-cultured human skin, accompanied by increased keratinocyte proliferation and wound healing-associated differentiation and work as a neuroendocrine wound repair promoter [107]. More often, functional recovery of spinal cord injury is also healing up by using intra-lesional bone marrow mononuclear cells embedded in polymer scaffold [21] (Figures 6a and 6b) ( Table 1). …”

“…PSCs reside in a number of tissues like umbilical cord blood [19] and bone marrow. These are one of the rich sources of adult stem cells [20] and are used in treating several conditions including spinal cord injury [21], liver cirrhosis, [22] chronic limb ischemia [38] and end stage heart failure [39]. The bone marrow stem cell quantity has been found to be declining with age in reproductive age group of females.…”

“…Normally teratomas are formed in organs such as the brain, thyroid, liver, and lung but teratomas of hair, teeth, bone are formed very rarely. Most commonly these occur in soft organ tissues like eyes [18,19], torso, [20,21] and hands, feet, or other limbs [22]. These are also formed in the skull sutures, tongue, nose, cervical and coccyx.…”

X-ray radiation effect of C-arm on adipose tissue-mesenchymal stem cell viability and population doubling time

“…1,2,7 Direct implantation of MSCs for spinal cord injury was relatively safe and may improve neurological deficit. [8][9][10][11] Intraspinal implantation of MSCs can be done either by open surgery 12 or by minimally invasive technique using C-arm image intensifier that causes X-ray radiation in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. Minimally invasive intraspinal implantation procedure mimics vertebroplasty procedure in term of C-arm guided to reach the lesion or spinal cord as an implantation target.…”