Title : Mesenchymal stem cells therapy exerts neuroprotection in an animal model of parkinson's disease
Abstract:
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and is expected to impose an increasing social and economic burden on societies as populations age. The ground-breaking developments in stem cell research in the last decade have revived interest in intracerebral cell transplantation as a therapeutic approach for PD. The experimental research with intranasal administration of stem cells in a PD mouse model can work and in some cases induce major, long-lasting improvement. This research was done for evaluating the effect of intranasal delivery of HEDSCs in a mouse model of PD.
Methods: In this research, the intranasal route was used for the administration of human endometrium-derived stem cells (HEDSCs)-GFP labeled in a mouse model of PD (intrastriatal injection of 6-OHDA) in 3 doses (10000, 50000, and 100000 cells µl-1). During four months after stem cell application, behavioral tests including rotational behavior test, Rotarod test, and open field test were examined. In addition, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to assay the GFP, human neural Nestin, and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) markers in the fixed brain tissue at the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) area.
Results: The result demonstrated that the administration of HEDSCs enhanced behavioral parameters compared with the control group significantly. The data from IHC analysis revealed that the GFP marker (Fig. 1) and also Nestin (as a differential neuronal biomarker, Fig. 2) were expressed in the SNpc area. Also, TH as a dopaminergic neuron marker significantly increased after cellular therapy in an optimized dose of 500000 cells µl-1.
Conclusions: Our investigation revealed that cellular therapy with HEDSCs (intranasal method) improved the PD symptoms in a mouse model of PD as an effective method.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, Mesenchymal stem cells, Cell therapy, Dopaminergic neurons, Intranasal method
