Intracranial transplant of olfactory ensheathing cells can protect both upper and lower motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that involves the degeneration of cortical and spinal motor neurons. Mutant SOD1(G93A) rats constitute a good animal model for this pathological condition. We have previously demonstrated that transplantation of neonatal olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) into the dorsal funiculus of the spinal cord of mutant SOD1(G93A) transgenic rats increases the survival of spinal motor neurons and remyelinates the impaired axons through the pyramidal tract. In the present study, we examine whether intracranial cell implantation could also exert a similar effect on cortical motor neurons and on the lower motor neurons in the spinal cord. We injected OECs from the bulb of 7-day-old GFP green rats into the corona radiata of adult SOD1 mutant rats stereotaxically to observe any changes of the upper motor neurons as well as the lower motor neurons. We found that more motor neurons at both the motor cortices and ventral horns of the spinal cord survived in grafted ALS rats than in control rats. Prolonged survival and behavioral tests including a screen test, hind limb extension, rotarod, and gait control showed that the treated animals were better than the control group. This manuscript is published as part of the International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) supplement issue of Cell Transplantation.