Migration and distribution of bone marrow stromal cells in injured spinal cord with diffferent transplantation techniques

Objective To investigate migration and distribution of bone marrow stromal cells in injured spinal cord with intradural space transplantation. Methods Forty Wistar rats were randomly as-signed to 4 groups. The spinal cord injury model was prepared according to the modified Allen method.Bone marrow stromal ceils were labeled by CM-Dil. 5.0 × 106 cells were transplanted with different tech-niques including intraventricular injection (group A), injured spinal cord intrathecal injection (group B),remote intrathecal injection (group C) , and intravascular injection (group D). Spinal cord was dissected at 24th h, 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th week after transplantation. Four-μm thick sections were cut on a cryostat and observed under the fluorescence microscopy. Results Twenty-four h after transplantation,no fluorescence was observed in SCI center except group B. One week later,BMSCs in groups A and C began to migrate to the injured parenchyma;2 weeks later, B MSCs penetrated into the injured parenchyma except group D;3-4 weeks later,the number of BMSCs in injured spinal tissues was reduced,and the number of BMSCs in group B was decreased faster than in groups A and B. Conclusion BMSCs transplanted through intravent-ricular injection,injured spinal cord intrathecal injection and remote intrathecal injection could migrate to the injured parenchyma of spinal cord effectivelly. Key words: Bone marrow stromal cells;  Transplantation;  Spinal cord injury