Effects of CCR5 Gene Transfection on Biological Behavior of Bone Marrow Derived Neural Stem Cells

Abstract: Bone marrow-derived neural stem cells (BM-NSCs) possess the self-renewal and neural differentiation potential， which can be used to repair a variety of nervous system degeneration and traumatic diseases. However， the rate of BM-NSCs migrate to the inflammatory sites was relatively slow and correlated with a moderately slow and limited clinical benefit. Lack of， or low expressing of particular chemokine receptors on NSCs could be an important factor underlying the slow migration of NSCs. To enhance the therapeutic effect of BM-NSCs， we constructed chemokine receptor CCR5 gene and transduced it into BM-NSCs， then assessed their capacity of proliferation， differentiation and migration with immunocytochemistry staining， flow cytometry and chemotaxis assay. It showed that overexpression of CCR5 enhanced chemotactic capacity of BM-NSCs significantly without affecting their ability of self-renew and differentiate into neurons and glial cells， indicating that gene-modified cells can not only maintain their potential of cell replacement and neural repair， but also possess rapid and mass migration to the lesion site， significantly enhance therapeutic efficacy.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2012.10.0003