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Olfactory ensheathing cells improve the survival of porcine neural xenografts in a Parkinsonian rat model
Author(s) -
Weng ShaoJu,
Chen ChienFu F.,
Huang YuahnSieh,
Chiu ChuangHsin,
Wu ShinnChih,
Lin ChenYing,
Chueh SheauHuei,
Cheng ChengYi,
Ma KuoHsing
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
xenotransplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.052
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1399-3089
pISSN - 0908-665X
DOI - 10.1111/xen.12569
Subject(s) - xenotransplantation , olfactory ensheathing glia , transplantation , striatum , dopaminergic , microglia , fetal tissue transplantation , neuroscience , immune system , substantia nigra , tyrosine hydroxylase , medicine , central nervous system , immunohistochemistry , pathology , biology , olfactory bulb , dopamine , immunology , fetus , pregnancy , genetics , inflammation
Background Parkinson's disease (PD) features the motor control deficits resulting from irreversible, progressive degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway. Although intracerebral transplantation of human fetal ventral mesencephalon (hfVM) has been proven effective at reviving DA function in the PD patients, this treatment is clinically limited by availability of hfVM and the related ethical issues. Homologous tissues to hfVM, such as porcine fetal ventral mesencephalon (pfVM) thus present a strong clinical potential if immune response following xenotransplantation could be tamed. Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are glial cells showing immunomodulatory properties. It is unclear but intriuging whether these properties can be applied to reducing immune response following neural xenotransplantation of PD. Methods To determine whether OECs may benefit neural xenografts for PD, different compositions of grafting cells were transplanted into striatum of the PD model rats. We used apomorphine‐induced rotational behavior to evaluate effectiveness of the neural grafts on reviving DA function. Immunohistochemistry was applied to investigate the effect of OECs on the survival of neuroxenografts and underlying mechanisms of this effect. Results Four weeks following the xenotransplantation, we found that the PD rats receiving pfVM + OECs co‐graft exhibited a better improvement in apomorphine‐induced rotational behavior compared with those receiving only pfVM cells. This result can be explained by higher survival of DA neurons (tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity) in grafted striatum of pfVM + OECs group. Furthermore, pfVM + OECs group has less immune response (CD3 + T cells and OX‐6 + microglia) around the grafted area compared with pfVM only group. These results suggest that OECs may enhance the survival of the striatal xenografts via dampening the immune response at the grafted sites. Conclusions Using allogeneic OECs as a co‐graft material for xenogeneic neural grafts could be a feasible therapeutic strategy to enhance results and applicability of the cell replacement therapy for PD.