Treatment of rat with traumatic brain injury and MR tracing in vivo via combined transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide and Schwann cells

J Biomed Nanotechnol. 2014 Feb;10(2):205-15. doi: 10.1166/jbn.2014.1765.

Abstract

Transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) or Schwann cells (SCs) can facilitate axonal regeneration in nerve injuries. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of BMSCs and SCs transplantation on a rat with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cellular migration in brain, and investigate whether combined BMSCs and SCs transplantations have more advantages than BMSCs transplantation alone. BMSCs were cultured in vitro and then labeled with SPIO. The labeled and unlabeled cells were assayed by MTT inspection to compare the effect of SPIO on growth activity of rat's BMSCs. Sciatic nerve was taken of the rat and striped off epineurium to obtain SCs by carrying out cell culture using mixed enzyme digestion. The SCs were identified by immunofluorescence labeling for S-100 protein and cellular activities were analyzed by MTT growth curves. Improved Feeney method was adopted to make a rat TBI model. In total, 50 male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats weighing 200-250 g were randomly divided into 5 groups: Groups A-E (n = 10 for each group). Injections of nutrient and stereotactic transplantation of BMSCs labeled with SPIO and stereotactic transplantation of SCs and BMSCs labeled with SPIO were administered in these groups 48 hours after TBI modeling. Neurological severity scores (NSS) were implemented at the 3 day, 1 week, 2 week and 4 week, respectively, after transplantation and 7.0T MRI scanning was done to observe migration situation of transplanted cells. After completion of MRI inspection at 4 weeks post transplantation, all rats were sacrificed and their brain tissue sections taken and assayed by HE staining and prussian blue staining. Numerous BMSCs were successfully labeled with SPIO. The labeling efficiency was more than 90%. There was no obvious difference between cellular proliferation of BMSCs labeled and unlabeled with SPIO at different time points. SCs were cultured in vitro and SCs S-100 detected as positive. MRI results show that T2WI was expressed in low signal area and migrated towards injury side after BMSCs labeled with SPIO were transplanted into brain. The combined transplantation had a quicker migration speed than single transplantation. NSS result shows that the combined transplantation group had a low score than single transplantation group after 2 weeks. In conclusion, BMSCs labeled with SPIO can be transplanted into brain and can be used in 7.0T MRI tracing in vivo. Compared to single transplantation, the combined transplantation of BMSCs and SCs has a quicker cellular migration and a better prognosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow Cells / cytology*
  • Bone Marrow Cells / metabolism
  • Brain Injuries / pathology
  • Brain Injuries / therapy*
  • Cell Movement
  • Dextrans / metabolism*
  • Ferrocyanides / metabolism
  • Flow Cytometry
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles
  • Male
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Schwann Cells / cytology
  • Schwann Cells / metabolism
  • Schwann Cells / transplantation*
  • Staining and Labeling*
  • Stromal Cells / cytology
  • Stromal Cells / metabolism
  • Stromal Cells / transplantation

Substances

  • Dextrans
  • Ferrocyanides
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles
  • ferumoxides
  • ferric ferrocyanide