Affiliations: Department of Orthopedics, Peking University Third
Hospital, 49 West Garden Road, Beijing, 100083, P.R. China | Peking University Stem Cell Research Center, Peking
University Health Science Center 38 Xue Yuan Road, Beijing, 100083, P.R.
China
Abstract: Purpose: Human neural progenitor cells hold great promise for
treating a variety of human neurological diseases such as spinal cord injury.
One of the issues limiting this technology is how to expand neural progenitor
cells in vitro to obtain sufficient number of cells for clinical
transplantation. We have established a homogeneous population of human neural
progenitor cells (hNPC-TERT) immortalized by the human telomerase reverse
transcriptase (hTERT) gene. Then we studied whether these cells could
differentiate into neural cells in vivo and improve the recovery of
spinal cord-injured rats. Methods: The hNPC-TERT cells had been
transplanted into the injured spinal cord and the functional recovery of the
rats with spinal cord contusion injury was evaluated through BBB locomotor
scale and Motor Evoked Potentials. Additionally, the differentiation of
hNPC-TERT cells was shown by immunocytochemistry. Results: As revealed by
this animal model, hNPC-TERT cells developed into functional cells in the
injured spinal cord and improved recovery from spinal cord injury in both
locomotor scores and electrophysiological parameter in this animal model.
Conclusions: This study is the first demonstration of the use of
telomerase-driven human progenitor cells to treat spinal cord injury and should
provide a new cell source for research of clinical application.
