| Issue |
Regen Med Res
Volume 2, 2014
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 9 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-490X-2-9 | |
| Published online | 12 December 2014 | |
Review
Pilot study: bone marrow stem cells as a treatment for dogs with chronic spinal cord injury
1
School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Av. Prof. Orlando Marques de Paiva, 87, Cidade Universitaria-Butanta, São Paulo 05508270, Brazil
* Correspondence: marcio_medvet@hotmail.com
Received: 30 July 2014
Accepted: 15 October 2014
Background: Chronic Spinal Cord injury is a common, severe, and medically untreatable disease. Since the functional outcomes of acute and experimental chronic spinal cord injury have been shown to improve with stem cell therapy, a case study was conducted to test if the application of stem cell also regenerates chronic SCI dysfunction. Transplantation of foetal bone marrow stem cells was applied in seven dogs with chronic spinal cord injury. Magnetic resonance images and assessments of symptoms according to the Olby scale were used to diagnose the severity of injury.
Result: All dogs improved locomotor and sensory function when examined 90 days after surgery, and showed increased movement of the hind limbs, and were able to stand upright, as well as to take small steps. Tail tone was observed in seven dogs, pain reflexes and defecation return were observed in five dogs.
Conclusion: The transplantation of bone marrow stem may be a promising, reliable and safe treatment for chronic spinal cord injury.
Key words: Cell therapy / Dysfunction / Spinal cord / Disease
© 2014 Sarmento et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.