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Beneficial effects of melatonin combined with exercise on endogenous neural stem/progenitor cells regeneration after spinal cord injury
Author(s) -
Lee Youngjeon,
Park Kanghui,
Lee Sang-Rae,
Chang Kyu-Tae,
Hong Yonggeun
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.685.22
Subject(s) - spinal cord injury , progenitor cell , neural stem cell , melatonin , nestin , astrocyte , stem cell , spinal cord , endogeny , neuroprotection , biology , medicine , neuroscience , central nervous system , microbiology and biotechnology
After spinal cord injury (SCI), as a protective response, endogenous adult neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) proliferate and differentiate into neurons and glial cells to facilitate healing process. We have shown that melatonin treatment combined with exercise had a synergistic effect in functional recovery after SCI. In this study, we have examined the combined effects of melatonin and exercise (SCI+MT+Ex) on NSPCs, at early and late phases of spinal injury. Compared to the SCI group, there was marked improvement in hind limb function in SCI+MT+Ex group after 14 and 21, as documented by the reduced size of the spinal lesion and a higher density of dendritic spines and axons; such functional improvements were associated with increased numbers of BrdU‐positive progenitor cells. Furthermore, neuronal marker MAP‐2 was increased in the injured thoracic segment, while astrocyte marker GFAP was increased in the cervical segment, along with elevated numbers of BrdU‐positive nestin expressing neural precursor cells in the SCI+MT+Ex group. These results suggest that the synergistic effect of melatonin combined with exercise might create a microenvironment to facilitate proliferation of nestin‐positive endogenous NSPCs to effectively replace injured cells and to improve regeneration of SCI.