Adult bone marrow transplantation after stroke in adult rats

We transplanted adult whole bone marrow prelabeled with bromodeoxyuridine ( BrdU) into the ischemic boundary zone of the adult rat brain at 1 day after 2 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). Approximately 3.3% of 10(6 ) transplanted bone marrow cells were BrdU reactive at 14 days after MCAo. BrdU reactive cells expressed neuronal and astrocytic proteins. neuronal nu clei protein (NeuN, 1%), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP, 5%) imm unoreactivities. respectively. In addition, bone marrow transplantation pro moted proliferation of ependymal and subependymal cells, identified by nest in (a neuroepithelial stem cell marker), within the ventricular zone and su bventricular zone (VZ/SVZ). These data suggest that intracerebral transplan tation of bone marrow could potentially be used to induce plasticity in isc hemic brain.