Treadmill exercise with bone marrow stromal cells transplantation potentiates recovery of locomotor function after spinal cord injury in rats

Transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) is regarded as a promising candidate for the spinal cord injury (SCI). In the present study, we investigated whether treadmill exercise potentiate the effect of BM-SCs transplantation on the functional recovery in the SCI rats. The spi-nal cord contusion injury applied at the T9–T10 level using the impactor. Cultured BMSCs were transplanted into the lesion at 1 week after SCI induction. Treadmill exercise was conducted for 6 weeks. Basso-Beat-tie-Bresnahan (BBB) scale for locomotor function was determined. Sprouting axons in the lesion cavity were detected by immunofluores-cence staining for neurofilament-200. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and synapsin-I expressions were analyzed using western blot-ting. BMSCs transplantation improved BBB score and increased ex-pressions of neurofilament-200, BDNF, and synapsin-I in the SCI rats. Treadmill exercise potentiated the improving effect of BMSCs trans-plantation on BBB score in the SCI rats. This potentiating effect of treadmill exercise could be ascribed to the enhancement of BDNF ex-pression in the SCI rats.