Human menstrual blood-derived stem cells promote functional recovery in a rat spinal cord hemisection model

Early human evidence such as case series or small samples is exploring possible benefits.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with a dismal prognosis including severe voluntary motor and sensory deficits in the presence of the current therapies, thus new and efficient treatment strategies are desperately required. Along with several advantages, such as easy accessibility, high-yield, potential of enormous proliferation, menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MenSCs) have been proposed as a promising strategy in regeneration medicine. In this study, the MenSCs were transplanted into incomplete thoracic (T10) spinal cord injury (SCI) rats, all rats were sacrificed at 7, 14, and 28 days after surgery. Based on the results, we found that MenSCs transplantation improved the hind limb motor function. Besides, H&E staining showed that MenSCs treatment markedly reduced cavity formation in the lesion site. Furthermore, treatment by MenSCs showed more MAP2-positive mature neurons, as well as axonal regeneration manifested by NF-200 and less expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) than the non-treatment in the lesion site. Additionally, immunofluorescence, Western blot, and qRT-PCR methods showed that levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were significantly higher in the injured spinal cord after implantation of MenSCs. Results of qRT-PCR indicated that inflammatory factors, including TNF-α and IL-1β were inhibited after MenSCs transpla

Evidence level

Early human evidence such as case series or small samples is exploring possible benefits.

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