Mesenchymal Stem Cells Therapy in the Lesioned-Rat Barrel Cortex for Recovery of Tactile Dysfunctions

Background and Aim: The vibrissal sensory system of rodents isfunctional to explore the levels of objects and textures by tactilediscrimination. Whiskers deflections produce sensory stimuli for theSomatosensory cortical region which known as whisker barrel fieldcortex. A mesenchymal stem cell can improve the functional deficits inmany central nervous system diseases including traumatic brain injury.The aim of the present study is dental pulp stem cells transplantation inthe lesioned-rat barrel cortex to evaluate of tactile dysfunctions.Methods: In this experimental study, 42 Wistar male rats (200-230 gr)have been used. Subjects were divided into 4 groups, randomly (n=7).In the differentiated/ undifferentiated dental pulp stem cell therapygroups (DCT/Un-DCT), stem cells transplanted directly into barrel cortexfollowing removal of part of right barrel cortex by using a skin punch(diameter, 3 mm). In the lesion group, only barrel cortex was eliminated.Rats in the control group were intact. After one week of recovery, theability of novel texture discrimination of each subject was investigatedfor 4 consecutively weeks.Results: The lesion group had a significant decrease in time of explorationof novel texture compared to controls during 4 weeks behavioral tests(P<0.05). In the first week, there is no significant statistical differenceamong the DCT and Un-DCT groups compared to lesion group, whilethe performance of DCT and Un-DCT rats were significantly improvedduring weeks 2-4 compared to lesion group (P<0.05).Conclusion: The lesioned-barrel cortex rats cannot discriminate thenovel object from the old object during 4 weeks of behavioral tests.Transplantation of dental pulp mesenchymal stem cells can improvetactile discrimination of rat. Therefore, stem cell therapy can provide apromising regenerative medicine for traumatic brain injury.

کلیدواژه ها:

Barrel cortex ، Lesion ، Dental pulp stem cell ، Rat