Background
Neural stem cells (NSCs) transplantation is considered a promising treatment for Parkinson's disease. But most NSCs are differentiated into glial cells rather than neurons, and only a few of them survive after transplantation due to the inflammatory environment.
Conclusions
The results suggested that transplantation of Nurr1-overexpressing NSCs and microglia could improve the inhospitable host brain environments, which will be a new potential strategy for the cell replacement therapy in PD.
Methods
In this study, neural stem cells (NSCs) and microglial cells both forced with the Nurr1 gene were transplanted into the striatum of the rat model of PD. The
Results
The behavioral abnormalities of PD rats were improved by combined transplantation of NSCs and microglia, both forced with Nurr1. The number of tyrosine hydroxylase+ cells in the striatum of PD rats increased, and the number of Iba1+ cells decreased compared with the other groups. Moreover, the dopamine neurons differentiated from grafted NSCs could still be detected in the striatum of PD rats after 5 months. Conclusions: The results suggested that transplantation of Nurr1-overexpressing NSCs and microglia could improve the inhospitable host brain environments, which will be a new potential strategy for the cell replacement therapy in PD.