Intraspinal transplantation of CD34+ human umbilical cord blood cells after spinal cord hemisection injury improves functional recovery in adult rats.

The present study was designed to compare the functional outcome of the intraspinal transplantation of CD34+ human umbilical cord blood (CB) cells with that of human bone marrow stromal (BMS) cells in adult rats with spinal cord injury. Sixty adult Wistar rats were subjected to left spinal cord hemisection, and then divided into three groups randomly. The control group received an injection of PBS without cells, while the two other groups of rats received a transplantation of 5 × 105 CD34+ CB or BMS cells, respectively. Functional outcome was measured using the modified Tarlov score at days 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 after transplantation. A statistically significant improvement in functional outcome and survival rate in the experimental groups of rats was observed compared with the control group. Rats that received CD34+ CB cells achieved a better improvement in functional score than those that received BMS cells at days 7 and 14 after transplantation. Histological evaluation revealed that bromodeoxyuridine (B...