Repair of spinal cord injury by neural stem cells transfected with brain-derived neurotrophic factor-green fluorescent protein in rats A double effect of stem cells and growth factors?

摘要

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) can significantly promote nerve regeneration and repair. High expression of the BDNF-green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene persists for a long time after transfection into neural stem cells. Nevertheless, little is known about the biological characteristics of BDNF-GFP modified nerve stem cells in vivo and their ability to induce BDNF expression or repair spinal cord injury. In the present study, we transplanted BDNF-GFP transgenic neural stem cells into a hemisection model of rats. Rats with BDNF-GFP stem cells exhibited significantly increased BDNF expression and better locomotor function compared with stem cells alone. Cellular therapy with BDNF-GFP transgenic stem cells can improve outcomes better than stem cells alone and may have therapeutic potential for spinal cord injury.