Objective: To explore the effects of neural stem cells transplantation on the differentiation of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons and on the rotational behavior in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is second only to Alzheimer’s disease as the most common progressive neurodegenerative disease. It is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra coincident with progressive depletion of dopamine in the striatum. At present, the main treatments for PD are medication and functional surgery , however, the efficacy reduces sharply with increased complications as the period of treatment increases. The current treatments neither prevent the diffuse loss of neurons in the substantia nigra area of the brain area nor stop the progression of PD. The causes of PD are not fully elucidated. Patients are commonly diagnosed in the middle to late stages and already have severe symptoms when seeking medical help. Consequently, the currently symptom-targeting or modifying treatments available do not result in long-term optimal outcomes.

Methods: Adult rats were randomly split into three groups of five: control, sham and transplanted groups. 6-OHDA (2 μg/μl) was microinjected (8 μl) into the right medial forebrain bundle of sham and transplanted rats. The right substantia nigra of rats in the transplanted group were injected with 5 μl neural stem cells suspension (5×104 cells/μl), while an equal volume of PBS solution was injected in the sham group.

Results: Eight weeks after transplantation, Tyrosine hydroxylase-ir neurons presented slight somata and few dendrites, the cell counts, protein synthesis and mRNA expression were significantly decreased in both the sham and transplanted groups (p<0.05). However, compared with the sham group, the levels in the transplanted group increased (p<0.05). Two weeks after transplantation, the rotational behavior in the transplanted group significantly was improved compared with pre-transplantation; this was also significantly different in the eighth week (p<0.05). There were no significant improvements in the rotational behavior of the sham group.

Conclusions: Transplanted neural stem cells are able to differentiate into substantia nigral dopaminergic neurons and attenuate characteristic behaviors in rat model of Parkinson’s disease.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/effects-of-neural-stem-cell-transplantation-on-the-differentiation-of-dopaminergic-neurons-in-the-substantia-nigra-and-changes-to-rotational-behavior-of-parkinsons-disease-rats/