Treadmill exercise enhances therapeutic potency of transplanted bone mesenchymal stem cells in cerebral ischemic rats via anti-apoptotic effects (BMC Neuroscience)

Background: The transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) has proved to ameliorate ischemic brain injury in animals, but most transplanted MSCs undergo apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra, greatly compromising the therapeutic value of this treatment. Meanwhile, cell apoptosis can be inhibited by post-ischemia exercise which has been demonstrated to improve the expression of related anti-apoptotic proteins. The present study investigated whether treadmill exercise enhances the neuroprotective effects of transplanted MSCs in a rat experimental stroke model.ResultRats were subjected to 2-h middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Twenty-four hours after reperfusion, they were assigned randomly to receive no MSCs treatment and no exercise (control group), intravenous transplantation of MSCs and treadmill exercise (MSCs + Ex group), MSCs transplantation only (MSCs group) and treadmill exercise only (Ex group). Neurological assessment, TUNEL staining and western blot were performed. Compared with the MSCs group and Ex group, the MSCs + Ex group reported markedly improved neurological function, significantly decreased apoptotic cells, and increased expressions of survivin and bcl-2 (p