HH Ryu¹, JH Lim¹ , YE Byeon¹ , BJ Jang¹ , JR Park², IS Shin⁴, WH Kim¹, YW Lee³, KS Kang², OK Kweon¹.
¹Department of Veterinary Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, ²Laboratory of Stem Cell and Tumor Biology, Department of Veterinary Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, ³Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea, ⁴RNL Bio, Seoul, Republic of Korea

ACVS Abstract 2007

The effects of allogenic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSC) in canine spinal cord injury model with balloon compression at 1st lumbar were evaluated. Eleven adult dogs were assigned to three groups according to the treatment after spinal cord injury; no treatment (C), saline treatment (CN), AMSC treatment (A). AMSC were prepared as 106 canine stem cells in 150ul of saline solution for the injection.

The AMSC were directly injected into injured site of spinal cord at 1 week after the induction of spinal cord injury. Functional recovery after transplantation was evaluated by Olby score, magnetic resonance image, somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) and histopathologic examination. Olby scores of all the groups had zero point at 0 week.

At 2 weeks after the transplantation, Olby scores in the group of AMSC were significantly higher than those in the groups of C and CN. However, there were any significant differences between the groups of C and CN. Those differences were also noted at 4 and 8 weeks after transplantation. Significant improvement of nerve conduction velocity based on SEP and distinct structural consistency with neuron cell body in the spinal cord were observed in AMSC.

These results suggest that transplantation of AMSC recovers the nerve function in dogs having spinal cord injury and could be a good therapeutics for spinal cord injury.