Functional recovery of chronic paraplegic pigs after autologous transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells.

Background: Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) transplantation offers promise in the treatment of chronic paraplegia in rodents. Here, we report the effect of this cell therapy in adult pigs suffering chronic paraplegia.

Methods: Three months after spinal cord injury, autologous BMSC in autologous plasma was injected into lesion zone and adjacent subarachnoid space in seven paraplegic pigs.

Detection of 111In-oxine-labeled bone marrow stromal cells after intravenous or intralesional administration in chronic paraplegic rats.

Recent studies suggested that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) may have a therapeutic role in the treatment of paraplegia secondary to severe spinal cord injury (SCI). For this reason, we have studied the possibility of using nuclear medicine imaging techniques to evaluate the permanency and migration of BMSC after transplantation procedures in chronic paraplegic Wistar rats. After intravenous administration of 111In-oxine-labeled BMSC, gammagraphic images showed that the activity distributed all over the organism, but in the spinal cord only scarce activity was identified.