Analysis on the Result of Wnt-3a Producing Fibroblast Implantation in Spinal Cord Injury of Rat

Objective: Promoting axonal regeneration is one of essential goals to be achieved for effective repair from spinal cord injury (SCI). The authors performed an experiment on the effect of Wnt-3a producing fibroblast injection on SCI. Methods: SCI is performed by New York University (NYU) impactor in 21 rats, and 1 week after injury, the rats were grouped into Wnt-3a producing fibroblast transplantation group (Wnt group, n=7), fibroblast transplantation group (vehicle group, n=7), and no treatment group (sham group, n=7). For the behavioral tests, the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale were evaluated. Also, to study radiological evidence of axon regeneration, the rats underwent manganese enhanced MRI (ME-MRI) twice, before treatment and 5 weeks after treatment. Results: On average, the sham group and vehicle group rats attained BBB score of 10.4 and 12.1, respectively, whereas Wnt group rats achieved a significantly higher BBB score of 14.0 at 5 weeks after treatment. At 5 weeks after treatment, relative signal intensities of ME-MRI was significantly higher in the Wnt group than in the vehicle group and sham group at 5 weeks after injury. Conclusion: In this study, the authors observed that neurological recovery after SCI in rats were improved by Wnt-3a producing fibroblasts which were injected intramedullary at 1 week after SCI. (J Kor Neurotraumatol Soc 2010;6:1-5)