A Rat Model of Radiation Vasculitis for the Study of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Therapy

Figure 1

Animal groups and treatment protocols. Sixty-four female F344 rats were allocated to six groups. The RT-plus-TX and RT-plus-TX + MSC group each had eight pairs of rats, and the other groups each had eight rats. Aorta irradiation was conducted in four groups: RT-only, RT-only + MSC, RT-plus-TX, and RT-plus-TX + MSC groups. The TX-only and vehicle groups were not irradiated and served as negative control. After irradiation, the aortas from RT-plus-TX and RT-plus-TX + MSC groups were transplanted to healthy rats. The RT-only and RT-only + MSC groups served as negative control for aorta transplantation. The mesenchymal stem cells were infused to RT-only + MSC and RT-plus-TX + MSC groups starting from thirty days after irradiation for four times with the interval of fifteen days. All rats were sacrificed on the ninetieth day after irradiation, and the aortas were procured for histology and biomedical analysis.