Carelli Stephana, Giallongo Toniella, Gerace Claudio, De Angelis Anthea, Basso Michele D, Di Giulio Anna Maria, Gorio Alfredo
Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan.
Department of Neuroscience, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University.
J Vis Exp. 2014 Dec 17(94):52141. doi: 10.3791/52141.
Spinal cord injury is a devastating clinical condition, characterized by a complex of neurological dysfunctions. Animal models of spinal cord injury can be used both to investigate the biological responses to injury and to test potential therapies. Contusion or compression injury delivered to the surgically exposed spinal cord are the most widely used models of the pathology. In this report the experimental contusion is performed by using the Infinite Horizon (IH) Impactor device, which allows the creation of a reproducible injury animal model through definition of specific injury parameters. Stem cell transplantation is commonly considered a potentially useful strategy for curing this debilitating condition. Numerous studies have evaluated the effects of transplanting a variety of stem cells. Here we demonstrate an adapted method for spinal cord injury followed by tail vein injection of cells in CD1 mice. In short, we provide procedures for: i) cell labeling with a vital tracer, ii) pre-operative care of mice, iii) execution of a contusive spinal cord injury, and iv) intravenous administration of post mortem neural precursors. This contusion model can be utilized to evaluate the efficacy and safety of stem cell transplantation in a regenerative medicine approach.
脊髓损伤是一种毁灭性的临床病症，其特征为一系列神经功能障碍。脊髓损伤动物模型可用于研究对损伤的生物学反应以及测试潜在疗法。对手术暴露的脊髓造成挫伤或压迫损伤是该病理学最广泛使用的模型。在本报告中，实验性挫伤是使用无限视野（IH）撞击器装置进行的，该装置通过定义特定损伤参数，能够创建可重复的损伤动物模型。干细胞移植通常被认为是治疗这种使人衰弱病症的一种潜在有用策略。众多研究已评估了移植多种干细胞的效果。在此，我们展示了一种适用于脊髓损伤后在CD1小鼠中进行尾静脉注射细胞的方法。简而言之，我们提供了以下步骤：i）用活性示踪剂标记细胞，ii）小鼠的术前护理，iii）进行挫伤性脊髓损伤，以及iv）静脉注射死后神经前体细胞。这种挫伤模型可用于评估干细胞移植在再生医学方法中的疗效和安全性。
