miR-124 regulates neural stem cells in the treatment of spinal cord injury

Several studies demonstrated that the overexpression of miR-124 in neural stem cells (NSCs) could lead the NSCs to differentiate into neurons and astrocytes, which may be important for functional recovery in spinal cord injury. The present study attempted to explore the potential repairing effect of the NSCs transfected with miR-124 for the rats with spinal cord injury (SCI). NSCs transfected with miR-124 were transplanted into rats by intravenous injection after SCI. The effects of miR-124 on the differentiation of NSCs and the treatment for the SCI-model rats were experimentally investigated. The reduction of cavity volume in focal lesions and Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) scores were used as the criteria of functional recovery of the SCI-model rats. Up-regulation of miR-124 promoted the differentiation of NSCs.Transfection of miR-124 in NSCs dramatically increased the percentage of NeuN-positive cells, and reduced the percentage of GFAP-positive cells in vitro and in vivo respectively. All of the rats treated with NSCs transfected with miR-124 achieved the better functional recovery than the ones in NSCs and sham control groups. Furthermore, the systemic delivery of the NSCs transfected with miR-124 resulted in a reduction of lesion cavity volume of SCI-model rats. Thus, Overexpression of miR-124 can promote the differentiation of NSCs and play an important role in the repair of SCI. The utility of intravenous delivery of stem cells regulated with miR-124 to target lesion areas as a prospective therapeutic approach in acute spinal cord injury is very promising in the future. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.