Subhan Rifa Aquidah, Puvanan Karunanithi, Murali Malliga Raman, Raghavendran Hanumantha Rao Balaji, Shani Samuel, Abdullah Basri Johan Jeet, Abbas Azlina Amir, Mohamed Jamal Azmi, Kamarul Tunku
Tissue Engineering Group, NOCERAL, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Department of Biomedical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2014;2014:818502. doi: 10.1155/2014/818502. Epub 2014 Mar 30.
This study was conducted to develop a technique for minimally invasive and accurate delivery of stem cells to augment nucleus pulposus (NP) in damaged intervertebral discs (IVD). IVD damage was created in noncontiguous discs at L4-L5 level; rabbits (N = 12) were randomly divided into three groups: group I treated with MSCs in HyStem hydrogel, group II treated with HyStem alone, and group III received no intervention. MSCs and hydrogel were administered to the damaged disc under guidance of fluoroscopy. Augmentation of NP was assessed through histological and MRI T2 mapping of the NP after eight weeks of transplantation. T2 weighted signal intensity was higher in group I than in groups II and III (P < 0.05). Disc height index showed maximum disc height in group I compared to groups II and III. Histological score of the degenerative index was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in group I (8.6 ± 1.8) than that in groups II (11.6 ± 2.3) and III (18.0 ± 5.7). Immunohistochemistry staining for collagen type II and aggrecan staining were higher in group I as compared to other groups. Our results demonstrate that the minimally invasive administration of MSCs in hyaluronan hydrogel (HyStem) augments the repair of NP in damaged IVD.
本研究旨在开发一种技术,用于以微创且精确的方式递送干细胞,以增强受损椎间盘(IVD)中髓核(NP)的功能。在L4-L5水平的非连续椎间盘上造成IVD损伤;将12只兔子随机分为三组:第一组用HyStem水凝胶中的间充质干细胞(MSCs)治疗,第二组仅用HyStem治疗,第三组不接受干预。在荧光透视引导下将MSCs和水凝胶施用于受损椎间盘。移植八周后,通过NP的组织学检查和MRI T2成像评估NP的增强情况。第一组的T2加权信号强度高于第二组和第三组(P < 0.05)。与第二组和第三组相比,第一组的椎间盘高度指数显示出最大的椎间盘高度。第一组的退变指数组织学评分(8.6 ± 1.8)显著低于第二组(11.6 ± 2.3)和第三组(18.0 ± 5.7)(P < 0.05)。与其他组相比,第一组中II型胶原蛋白的免疫组织化学染色和聚集蛋白聚糖染色更高。我们的结果表明,在透明质酸水凝胶(HyStem)中微创施用MSCs可增强受损IVD中NP的修复。