Autologous Cord Blood Therapy for Infantile Cerebral Palsy: From Bench to Bedside
Figure 2
Transplantation of hUCB-derived mononuclear cells reduces spastic paresis as assessed by footprint analysis of 3-wk-old animals (see [17, Figure 5]). (a) Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage results in spastic paresis of the distal limb muscles, causing a significant reduction of footprint width (toe distance 1 to 5) of the right hind paw (contralateral to the insult; black columns) compared with the left (ipsilateral; gray columns) hind paw. Intraperitoneal transplantation of hUCB-derived mononuclear cells after hypoxic-ischemic brain damage reduced spastic paresis. In these animals, differences between ipsi- and contralateral hind paws were no longer detectable. Photographs of footprints (right hind paws) illustrate the footprint widths (arrows) of control animals without (left) and with (center left) transplantation, upon hypoxic-ischemic lesion without (center right) and with (right) transplantation of hUCB-derived mononuclear cells. (b) In control animals with and without transplantation, the step length of left and right hind paws is equal. In contrast, hypoxic-ischemic lesion resulted in a significantly reduced step length of the right hind paw (black columns) compared with the left hind paw (gray columns). This reduction in step length of the hind paw contralateral to the lesion, also indicative of spastic paresis, was largely alleviated upon transplantation of hUCB-derived mononuclear cells. Data are presented as mean ± SEM; *; ***. This paper is available online at: http://www.nature.com/pr/journal/v59/n2/full/pr200649a.html.
