Cell & Stem Cell Research

Traumatic brian injury results after a blow to the head induces a terminal change in velocity causing the brain to be displaced beyond the blood brain barrier. This impact causes a cascade of cellular injuries. The initial injury is vascular and effects neuronal cells as well. The secondary injury is autoimmune in nature. Adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) have the ability to migrate to sites of injury (inflammation) and repair damaged neuro-vascular tissue. They also can mitigate immune responses due to their immuno-modulatory characteristics. The first part of our study examined the use of fresh stromal vascular fraction (SVF), which contians ADSCs and hematopoetic stem cells (HSCs), delivered via tail vein injection, to mitigate the effects of shockwave induced TBI. The administration of SVF imporved both memory and motor skills functions. Another model was developed to model chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the rat model. In this follow up study, rats received a shockwave induced TBI once a week for 10 weeks, followed by 1 million culture expanded ADSCs via tail vein injection (saline control). The rats were monitored for memory and motor skills. Histology was performed and showed human nucleated cells homed in on the site of injury and developed into functional tissue. These two studies show that cell treatmnet improves patient with acute brain injury and can prevent otehrwise long term expected side-effects of CTE.