Use of Stem Cells for Treatment after Traumatic Brain Injury
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Subject Area
Psychology
Description
Majors: Biology, Neuroscience
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Victoria Templer, Psychology
Recent exploration of neural stem cell (NSC) treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI) has shown promising recovery of cognitive and motor function. The most successful methods of treatment include VEGF and cerebrolysin injections and BDNF and hADSC grafts. This study examined the effectiveness of these treatments on recovery of cognitive and motor function. Fischer 344 male rats (N=20) were subjected to either TBI by closed cortical impact (n=16) or surgery with no TBI (n=4). 72 hours after injury, all rats were anesthetized again and were injected or transplanted with their treatment. All rats completed the Morris Water Maze (MWM) to measure cognitive, spatial function and the paw-grip task to measure motor, nonspatial function. At the baseline, all TBI rats showed significant deficit in cognitive and motor function. Beginning at 30 days after stem cell treatment, improvement on both tasks was seen. After 90 days, hADSC graft and VEGF injected rats showed significant improvement on both tasks, almost completely recovering to control levels. This suggests that both endogenous and exogenous methods of stem cell treatment are successful. This offers an exciting method of improving neural functioning after brain injuries, which currently have very limited treatment options.
Publisher
Providence College
Type
Presentation
Date
Spring 4-29-2021
Start Date
4-29-2021 12:00 AM
Format
Video
.mp4
Language
English
