Hair-Follicle-Associated Pluripotent (HAP) Stem Cells Encapsulated on Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membranes (PFM) Promote Functional Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury
2019
Our previous studies showed that
nestin-expressing
hair follicle-associated-pluripotent (HAP)
stem cells, which reside in the bulge area of the
hair follicle, could restore injured nerve and
spinal cordand differentiate into
cardiac muscle cells. Here we transplanted mouse green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing HAP
stem-cell colonies enclosed on
polyvinylidene fluoridemembranes (PFM) into the severed thoracic
spinal cordof nude mice. After seven weeks of implantation, we found the differentiation of HAP
stem cellsinto neurons and glial cells. Our results also showed that PFM-captured GFP-expressing HAP
stem-cell colonies assisted complete reattachment of the thoracic
spinal cord. Furthermore, our quantitative motor function analysis with the Basso Mouse Scale for Locomotion (BMS) score demonstrated a significant improvement in the implanted mice compared to non-implanted mice with a severed
spinal cord. Our study also showed that it is easy to obtain HAP
stem cells, they do not develop teratomas, and do not loose differentiation ability when cryopreserved. Collectively our results suggest that HAP
stem cellscould be a better source compared to
induced pluripotent stem cells(iPS) or embryonic
stem(ES) cells for regenerative medicine, specifically for
spinal cordrepair.
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