Thermo-sensitive hydrogel combined with SHH expressed RMSCs for rat spinal cord regeneration

Jun Gu; Biao Gao; Hajra Zafar; Bo Chu; Xiaojun Feng; Yinjie Ni; Lin Xu; Rui Bao

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.1001396

Thermo-sensitive hydrogel combined with SHH expressed RMSCs for rat spinal cord regeneration

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Oct 21:10:1001396. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.1001396. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jun Gu^{1

2}, Biao Gao^{1

3}, Hajra Zafar⁴, Bo Chu², Xiaojun Feng², Yinjie Ni², Lin Xu², Rui Bao⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Department of Orthopedics, Xishan People's Hospital, Wuxi, China.
³ Wuxi Xishan District Ehu Town Health Center, Wuxi, China.
⁴ School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China.

Abstract

Purpose: Spinal cord injury (SCI) has a damaging impact on patients, amid being a worldwide problem with no effective treatment. Herein, we reported a method for functional therapy of SCI in rats, wherein we combined thermo-sensitive hydrogel with Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) expressed in rat bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (RMSCs). Methods: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were isolated from Sprague-Dawley (SD) female rats. The SHH was optimized and transferred into RMSCs via cationic liposomes, while thermo-sensitive hydrogel was reformed with hyaluronate (HA) and Pluronic F127. Then, a rat model with SCI was established accordingly by male SD rats and randomized into sham, model, RMSCs with hydrogel and SHH-RMSCs with hydrogel. The evaluation of SCI repair based on Basso, Beattie Bresnahanlocomotor rating scale (BBB scale) and inclined plate score. Immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and hematoxylin-eosin were utilized to explore the expression of protein (GFAP, GAP43, NF200 and MBP) and histopathology. Results: It was demonstrated that transfection of SHH with cationic liposomes exhibited more effect in RMSCs than lipofectamine 2000. As shown in SEM, 3.5% HA-F127 demonstrated porous structure. In the MTT and dead/live assay, 3.5% HA-F127 showed good biocompatibility for RMSCs. Both RMSCs and SHH-RMSCs groups could significantly promote BBB and inclined plate scores (p < 0.01) compared with the model. Furthermore, the SHH-RMSC group was significantly improved than RMSC with the expression of related proteins, where NF200, MBP, and GAP43 were principally enhanced with the GFAP expression being virtually down-regulated. Conclusion: All in all, the results suggested that transplantation of RMSCs with SHH could improve the function of SCI and promote nerve regeneration.

Keywords: Shh; nerve regeneration; rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; spinal cord injury; thermo-sensitive hydrogel.