Intravenous infusion of adipose-derived stem/stromal cells improves functional recovery of rats with spinal cord injury.

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Adipose tissue is a potential source for cell therapy to treat spinal cord injury(SCI) because it contains multipotent cells known as adipose-derived stem/stromal cells(ASCs). Here, we performed intravenous infusion of ASCs in rats with SCI. ASCs significantly promoted functional recovery of SCI rats compared with control animals, and the area of spinal cord cavitation was smaller in the ASC group. ASCs gradually accumulated at the site of injury, but long-term survival of these cells was not demonstrated. Spinal cord tissue levels of trophic factors were not increased after ASC infusion. Interestingly, cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant-1(CINC-1) showed a transient increased in both the spinal cord tissue and blood of the ASC group. CINC-1 was secreted by ASCs in vitro, and the sponge implantation assay showed that ASCs induced angiogenesis as did CINC-1.These findings suggest that CINC-1 may play an important role in recovery from SCI after ASC transplantation.