Increasing Human Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Dose Alters Oligodendroglial and Neuronal Differentiation after Spinal Cord Injury

This study investigates how different doses of transplanted human neural stem cells (hNSCs) affect their behavior and the recovery process after spinal cord injury (SCI) in mice. The researchers found that while higher doses of hNSCs led to more cells surviving in the injured spinal cord, the types of cells they turned into (neurons, oligodendrocytes, or astrocytes) and where they migrated to varied depending on the dose. Ultimately, the study suggests that the optimal dose of hNSCs for SCI treatment might not be the highest one, and that the balance of different cell types produced by the transplanted cells could be crucial for effective recovery.

• 1
  Increasing the transplant dose of hCNS-SCns resulted in a plateau of engraftment at the highest dose (500,000 cells), suggesting a limit to the SCI niche's capacity.
• 2
  Higher transplantation doses decreased the proportion of human cells differentiating into oligodendrocytes, while increasing the proportion of cells differentiating into mature neurons.
• 3
  While dose had no effect on sensory recovery or open-field locomotor scores, a higher total human cell number and decreased oligodendroglial proportion correlated with hindlimb girdle coupling errors, suggesting a negative impact on coordination.