Therapeutic potentials of human microfluidic encapsulated conjunctival mesenchymal stem cells on the rat model of Parkinson's disease

Meysam Forouzandeh; Mohammad Reza Bigdeli; Hossein Mostafavi; Samad Nadri; Mehdi Eskandari

doi:10.1016/j.yexmp.2021.104703

Therapeutic potentials of human microfluidic encapsulated conjunctival mesenchymal stem cells on the rat model of Parkinson's disease

Exp Mol Pathol. 2021 Dec:123:104703. doi: 10.1016/j.yexmp.2021.104703. Epub 2021 Oct 5.

Authors

Meysam Forouzandeh¹, Mohammad Reza Bigdeli², Hossein Mostafavi³, Samad Nadri⁴, Mehdi Eskandari⁵

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Life Sciences, Shahid-Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
² Faculty of Life Sciences, Shahid-Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran; Inistitute for Cognitive and Brain Science, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: bigdelimohammadreza@yahoo.com.
³ Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Science, Zanjan, Iran.. Electronic address: mostafavih@zums.ac.com.
⁴ Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
⁵ Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Science, Zanjan, Iran.

PMID: 34619140
DOI: 10.1016/j.yexmp.2021.104703

Abstract

Background and aim: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by the destruction of the dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway, leading to motor-behavioral complications. Cell therapy has been proposed as a promising approach for PD treatment using various cellular sources. Despite a few disadvantages mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent, they have more auspicious effects for PD cell therapy. The present study aimed to evaluate a new source of MSCs isolated from human Conjunctiva (CJ-MSCs) impact on PD complications for the first time.

Materials and methods: Parkinson's was induced by stereotactic injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) into the right medial forebrain bundle (MFB). An apomorphine-induced rotation test was used to confirm the model establishment. After PD model confirmation, green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeled CJ-MSCs and induced CJ-MSCs (microfluidic encapsulated and non-capsulated) were transplanted into the rats' right striatum. Then Rotation, Rotarod, and Open-field tests were performed to evaluate the behavioral assessment. Additionally, the immunohistochemistry technique was used for identifying tyrosine hydroxylase (TH).

Results: According to the obtained data, the cell transplantation caused a reduction in the rats' rotation number and improved locomotion compared to the control group. The previous results were also more pronounced in induced and microfluidic encapsulated cells compared to other cells. Rats recipient CJ-MSCs also have represented more TH-expressed GFP-labeled cell numbers in the striatum than the control group.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that CJ-MSCs therapy can have protective effects against PD complications and nerve induction of cells due to their ability to express dopamine. On the other hand, CJ-MSCs microencapsulating leads to enhance even more protective effect of CJ-MSCs. However, confirmation of this hypothesis requires further studies and investigation of these cells' possible mechanisms of action.

Keywords: Conjunctival mesenchymal stem cells; Microfluidic encapsulated; Parkinson's disease; Stem cell therapy; Tyrosine hydroxylase.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Conjunctiva / cytology
Conjunctiva / transplantation*
Corpus Striatum / pathology
Corpus Striatum / transplantation
Disease Models, Animal
Humans
Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation*
Mesenchymal Stem Cells / cytology*
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques
Oxidopamine / pharmacology
Parkinson Disease / pathology
Parkinson Disease / therapy*
Rats

Substances

Oxidopamine