Mesenchymal stem cells transplantation delays functional deterioration by inhibiting neuroinflammation response in aged mice

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) on functional deterioration and neuroinflammatory response in aged C57BL/6J mice. Mice were divided into 3 groups: normal aged group, saline control group, and BM-MSCs treatment group. Saline and BM-MSCs were administrated by intraventricular injection into the right ventricle. Spatial Y-maze (SYM) test, novel objective recognition (NOR) test, and locomotor activity test were used to evaluate cognitive and locomotor ability at 7 and 42 days after transplantation. Microglia and astrocyte expression in the hippocampus CA1 region and dentate gyrus (DG) were evaluated by immunohistochemical method. Furthermore, the content of TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-1β in the hippocampus and cortex were detected with ELISA. We found that BM-MSCs transplantation increased time in novel arm and percentage of alteration in SYM test, discrimination ratio and discrimination index in the NOR test, and traveled total distance and mean velocity in the locomotor activity test. It also inhibited microglia and astrocyte expression, and reduced the content of IL-1α and IL-1β in the hippocampus. Our results suggested that BM-MSCs transplantation could delay cognitive and locomotor function deterioration through inhibiting neuroinflammation response, which would provide a rationale for exploring the viability of using BMMSCs transplantation in cognitive deficit diseases.