Mesenchymal stem cells transplantation attenuates experimentally induced brain injury after neonatal hypoxia by different two routes of administrations

Abstract

The neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is an important cause of neurological morbidity and mortality in neonates. Cell therapy is considered a promising method for treating severe neurological disorders such as this one. Stem cells have the capacity for self-renewal and differentiation into certain cell lineages. The present study was aimed to find out the most beneficial route of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) administration for the attenuation of experimentally induced HIE in neonatal rats. Sixty neonatal rats were divided randomly into four groups. Group 1: control group. Group 2: rats were exposed to bilateral ligation of cephalic arteries. Group 3: rats were exposed to bilateral ligation of cephalic arteries and then underwent intravenous (IV) BMSC injection. Group 4: rats were exposed to bilateral ligation of cephalic arteries and then underwent intracerebroventricular (ICV) BMSC injection. The animals were evaluated by (a) neurobehavioral tests; (b) histopathology, i.e., histological and immunohistochemical studies; and (3) gene expression studies. The BMSC treated groups (3 and 4) showed improvement in neurobehavioral tests, histopathological studies, and gene expression, as compared to non-injected lesioned rats (Group 2) with better improvement in Group 4 (ICV injections) than in Group 3 (IV injections).