Mechanisms of Functional Recovery of Spinal Cord Injury after Primates Using Dental Pulp Stem Cells

Spinal cord injury are assumed difficult to recover due to various factors. In recent years, the study of cell transplantation therapy for spinal cord injury have been noted.
Previously, we showed that the recovery of motor function improved for lower limb of rats using human dental pulp stem cells. However, compared with the binding mode of corticospinal tract nerve in primates, in rats it is very different. To develop the new treatment after spinal cord injury in humans, we have compared the effect healing of human dental pulp stem cells against to spinal cord injury using a rhesus monkey with the characteristics behavioral physiology, anatomy the same to humans. This study was performed as a process for functional recovery of dexterous finger movement that developed particularly in primates.

We performed a hemi-section on the left side of the C5 spinal cord of rhesus monkeys that thoroughly trained finger movement function evaluation. Immediately, we transplanted stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) 1*10^6 cells at Hamilton syringe each sites leaion area and its rostral sites and caudal sites.

The control group was injected with PBS I at the same site for comparison. Check the hemiplegia of monkey day after surgery, we started the rehabilitation of limb then.