Background: Systemic administration of human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) was recently shown to reduce neuropathology and improve functional recovery following ischemic stroke in both mice and marmosets. Given the significant neuropathological overlap between ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI), we hypothesized that a similar hAEC treatment regime would also improve TBI outcomes. Methods: Male mice (12 weeks old, n=40) were given a sham injury or moderate severity TBI by controlled cortical impact. At 60 minutes post-injury, mice were given a single tail vein injection of either saline (vehicle) or 1x10 6 hAECs suspended in saline. At 24 h post-injury, mice were assessed for locomotion and anxiety using an open field, and sensorimotor ability using a rotarod. At 48 h post-injury, brains were collected for analysis of immune cells via flow cytometry, or histological evaluation of lesion volume and hAEC penetration. To assess the impact of TBI and hAECs on lymphoid organs, spleen and thymus weights were determined. Results: Treatment with hAECs did not prevent TBI-induced sensorimotor deficits at 24 h post-injury. hAECs were detected in the injured brain parenchyma; however, lesion volume was not altered by hAEC treatment. Robust increases in several leukocyte populations in the ipsilateral hemisphere of TBI mice were found when compared to sham mice at 48 h post-injury; however, hAEC treatment did not alter brain immune cell numbers.Both TBI and hAEC treatment were found to increase spleen weight. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings indicate that -unlike in ischemic stroke -treatment with hAEC was unable to prevent immune cell infiltration and sensorimotor deficits in the acute stages following controlled cortical impact in mice. Although further investigations are required, our data suggests that the lack of hAECinduced neuroprotection in the current study may be explained by the differential splenic contributions to neuropathology between these brain injury models. Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading causing of death and disability worldwide [1, 2]. Although numerous treatments have proved promising in rodent models of experimental TBI, all pharmacological agents investigated to date have failed to improve outcomes in clinical trials [3-6]. The diverse nature of clinical TBI is likely to be a major contributor to such failures, with individual Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate: All procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee at La Trobe University (AEC #18-032). Authors' contributions: HK, BDS, CGS and SJM conceptualized the study. HK, BDS, LP and SJM conducted animal surgeries. RL isolated and quantified hAECs. SJM and LP conducted behavioral testing. LKD, SD, SZ and BDS conducted histology. HK conducted flow cytometry. All authors contributed to data interpretation, manuscript preparation and finalization. Acknowledgments: traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease St...