Neural stem cells transplantation in cortex in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: The goal of this study was to elucidate the effect of neurospheres (NS) on dementia in the mouse model of nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) lesion.

Methods: Mouse embryonic stem cell (ES) derived neurospheres were transplanted into the frontal association cortex and barrel field of S1 cortex of C57BL/6 mice 4 weeks after including a lesion of NBM by ibotenic acid, while other healthy mice that received ES cells served as control. Behavioral tests by 8-arm radial maze were conducted 8 weeks after transplantation, and double staining of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), serotonin, amyloid-beta protein (AP) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) 12 weeks after transplantation.

Differences in the neuronal stem cells survival, neuronal differentiation and neurological improvement after transplantation of neural stem cells between mild and severe experimental traumatic brain injury.

We developed a novel protocol for generation and selective amplification of neural progenitor cells regionally specified to the rostral brain but not the spinal cord from mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The neural progenitors could differentiate in vitro and in vivo into many cholinergic and a few GABAergic neurons but rarely into astrocytes. The transplanted neurospheres could survive in the hippocampus (CA3) of animals with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).