Repair of peripheral nerve defects with chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts loaded with neurotrophic factors-transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts loaded with brain-derived neurotrophic fac- tor-transfected or ciliary neurotrophic factor-transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to repair sciatic nerve injury better than chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts alone, or chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts loaded with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. We hypothesized that these allografts compounded with both brain-derived neurotrophic factor- and ciliary neurotrophic factor-transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells may demonstrate even better effects in the repair of peripheral nerve injury. We cultured bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells expressing brain-derived neuro- trophic factor and/or ciliary neurotrophic factor and used them to treat sciatic nerve injury in rats. We observed an increase in sciatic functional index, triceps wet weight recovery rate, myelin thickness, number of myelinated nerve fibers, amplitude of motor-evoked potentials and nerve conduction velocity, and a shortened latency of motor-evoked potentials when al- lografts loaded with both neurotrophic factors were used, compared with allografts loaded with just one factor. Thus, the combination of both brain-derived neurotrophic factor and cili- ary neurotrophic factor-transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can greatly improve nerve injury.

Stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson's disease Literature analysis based on the Web of Science

OBJECTIVE： To identify global research trends of stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease using a bibliometric analysis of the Web of Science. DATA RETRIEVAL： We performed a bibliometric analysis of data retrievals for stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease from 2002 to 2011 using the Web of Science. SELECTION CRITERIA： Inclusion criteria： （a） peer-reviewed articles on stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease which were published and indexed in the Web of Science; （b） type of articles： original research articles, reviews, meeting abstracts, proceedings papers, book chapters, editorial material and news items; （c） year of publication： 2002-2011. Exclusion criteria： （a） articles that required manual searching or telephone access; （b） we excluded documents that were not published in the public domain; （c） we excluded a number of corrected papers from the total number of articles. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： （1） Type of literature; （2） annual publication output; （3） distribution according to journals; （4） distribution according to subject areas; （5） distribution according to country; （6） distribution according to institution; （7） comparison of countries that published the most papers on stem cell transplantation from different cell sources for treating Parkinson＇s disease; （8） comparison of institutions that published the most papers on stem cell transplantation from different cell sources for treating Parkinson＇s disease in the Web of Science from 2002 to 2011; （9） comparison of studies on stem cell transplantation from different cell sources for treating Parkinson＇s disease RESULTS： In total, 1 062 studies on stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease appeared in the Web of Science from 2002 to 2011, almost one third of which were from American authors and institutes. The number of studies on stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease had gradually increased over the past 10 years. Papers on stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease appeared in journals such as Stem Cells and Experimental Neurology. Although the United States published more articles addressing neural stem cell and embryonic stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease, China ranked first for articles published on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease. CONCLUSION： From our analysis of the literature and research trends, we found that stem cell transplantation for treating Parkinson＇s disease may offer further benefits in regenerative medicine.