Transplantation of Specific Human Astrocytes Promotes Functional Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury

PLoS ONE, 2011 · DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017328 · Published: March 2, 2011

Spinal Cord Injury Regenerative Medicine Neurology

Simple Explanation

This study investigates whether transplanting specific types of human astrocytes (support cells in the central nervous system) can help repair spinal cord injuries. The researchers generated astrocytes from human glial precursor cells using two different methods, resulting in astrocytes with distinct properties. They found that one type of astrocyte, generated by exposing precursor cells to bone morphogenetic protein, promoted significant recovery after spinal cord injury in rats.

Study Duration

5 weeks

Participants

Adult Sprague-Dawley rats

Evidence Level

Not specified

Key Findings

1
Astrocytes generated by exposing human glial precursor cells to bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) promoted significant recovery of volitional foot placement after spinal cord injury.
2
These BMP-generated astrocytes also increased axonal growth and neuronal survival in multiple spinal cord laminae.
3
Astrocytes generated with ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) failed to promote significant behavioral recovery or neuronal survival.

Research Summary

This study demonstrates that specific subtypes of human astrocytes have different abilities to promote repair in the injured adult central nervous system. Transplantation of astrocytes generated by exposure of human glial progenitor cells (hGPCs) to BMP (hGDAsBMP) promoted robust behavioral recovery and multi-laminae protection of spinal cord neurons following spinal cord injury (SCI). Pre-differentiation of glial precursors to specific, beneficial astrocytic cell types prior to transplantation stresses the need to consider such manipulations as a critical component in the optimization of stem/precursor cell transplantation based therapies.

Practical Implications

Therapeutic Potential

Astrocyte transplantation could be a viable therapeutic strategy for treating spinal cord injuries and other CNS disorders.

Astrocyte Selection

Selecting the right subtype of astrocyte is crucial for effective transplantation therapies.

Pre-differentiation Importance

Pre-differentiating precursor cells into specific astrocyte subtypes before transplantation can significantly improve functional outcomes.

Study Limitations

1
Prolonged survival of the grafted astrocytes was not required to obtain durable improvements in behavior and neuronal survival.
2
The underlying mechanisms accounting for why hGDAsBMP are so much more beneficial in terms of neuroprotection and functional recovery than either hGDAsCNTF or undifferentiated precursor cells when transplanted into spinal cord injured rats remain to be investigated.
3
The one difference observed in these studies was that hGDABMP transplantation showed a slightly longer delay (7 days versus 3 days) in providing significant behavioral recovery. Whether this is due to differences in cell properties or a consequence of the xenograft itself remains to be investigated.

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