Age-related responses of endogenous neural progenitor cells: Contributing to the understanding of paediatric spinal cord injury — The Association Specialists
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  2. Biomarkers in Clinical Medicine
  3. Age-related responses of endogenous neural progenitor cells: Contributing to the understanding of paediatric spinal cord injury

Age-related responses of endogenous neural progenitor cells: Contributing to the understanding of paediatric spinal cord injury (333)

Kathryn J Mathews 1
  1. University of Technology, Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Background
Endogenous neural progenitor cells have been recently shown to have significant proliferative potential in vitro, with current studies aimed at replicating these effects in vivo. Likewise, studies in paediatric spinal cord injury have indicated that younger individuals regain functional recovery faster than their older counterparts due to increased neural plasticity. To date, however, there have been no studies investigating age-related reactivity of progenitor cells to spinal cord injury, particularly within paediatric populations.


Aims
This study aims to compare infant, juvenile and adult populations of rats with a mild spinal cord contusion injury, with the hopes of discovering any significant differences in the degree of progenitor cell proliferation, differentiation and migration between the three age groups. These results were compared with tissue from normal or sham controls for statistical analysis.


Methods
Three groups of rats were given a mild spinal cord injury at the T10 vertebra. Two infant subgroups were studied, with one group sustaining a more severe injury. After two weeks survival, frozen sections were stained immunohistochemically with antibodies to Nestin and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP). Microscopic images of the damaged spinal cords were analysed determine statistically any differences in progenitor cell activity between each of the age groups.


Results
Infant rats from both subgroups showed a greater degree of GFAP activation in the injured central canal, followed by juvenile and adult rats (p<0.05). The opposite is true of Nestin activation in the central canal, with adult rats showing the greatest degree of activation (p<0.005). There was little difference in GFAP and Nestin activation between the infant groups.


Conclusion
The results of this study suggest that progenitor cells in the central canal of younger animals activate and differentiate into astrocytes more rapidly than the cells of older animals, as suggested by the inverse relationship between GFAP and Nestin activation after injury.