Cell therapy combined with magnetic targeting for treatment of peripheral neuropathies

VANINA USACH; MARIANELA VENCE; PAULA A. SOTO; DAVID DONALISIO; JUAN ALBALA; MORA FREIXES; IVANA CHAIA; MARCELA FERNANDEZ VAN RAAP; CLARA P. SETTON

CABA

Congreso; First Meeting Glia Club Southern Cone: The good, the bad, the nice and the ugly of glial cells.; 2022

Club de la Glia

Bone marrow mononuclear cell (BMMC) is a heterogeneous fraction containing a small population of multipotent cells, good candidates for cell therapy since they are easily isolated, no culture required, have high yield and survival rate after transplantation and low immunogenicity.We have demonstrated the migration of systemically transplanted BMMC in an 8 sec-crush model, where they exerted beneficial effects in terms of morphological features, functional aspects and prevention of neuropathic pain. Also, we have demonstrated that magnetically assisted delivery of adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells loaded with iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNP), is a highly promising strategy to promote cell recruitment and sciatic nerve regeneration after injury. In this context, the aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of systemic transplantation of BMMC alone or combined with magnetic targeting for the treatment of rat 30-sec sciatic nerve crush and whether through magnetic targeting the number of systemically transplanted cells may be reduced to achieving a similar beneficial effect. For this, adult rats were submitted to 30 sec-sciatic nerve crush and immediately transplanted systemically with BMMC or BMMC-MNP; magnetic targeting was achieved by placing an external magnet close to the injured site. Morphological and functional studies were performed to evaluate the effect of both treatments. Even though the lesion is more severe and bibliographically considered as an axotomy, BMMC were able to migrate and exert their beneficial effect on regeneration. More myelinated axons were observed in semi-thin sections of nerves from animals submitted to magnetic targeting. In this group MBP and βIII-tubulin recovery was earlier than in non-treated or BMMC-treated rats. As regard sciatic functional index, magnetic targeting group showed a faster recovery beginning 14 days after treatment.These results encourage us to propose magnetic targeting of BMMC systemically transplanted as a promising strategy for the treatment of acquired peripheral neuropathies.