Transplantation of human fetal brain cells into ischemic lesions of adult gerbil hippocampus

Object. The goal of this study was to establish whether transplanted cells derived from fetal human brain can survive in an ischemic lesion. Methods. Sixteen adult male Mongolian gerbils underwent transient bilateral common carotid artery occlusion. One week later, cell suspensions prepared from fetal human brain were injected using stereotactic guidance into the CA I region of the hippocampus on one side. On the contralateral side injec tion of the cell suspension medium only was performed. One week after trans plantation, the animals were perfusion fixed and their brains were processe d for histological studies as well as expression of neuron and glia-specifi c antigens. Data from ischemic animals were compared with eight nonischemic gerbils that served as sham-operated controls. Last, the in vivo data were correlated with observations made from matching in vitro cultures of the f etal brain cell suspension. The in vivo data indicated that transplanted human fetus-derived brain cell s survived in ischemic lesions of gerbil hippocampus after I week, provided that the host animal underwent adequate immunosuppression and the transpla nted cells were not incorporated into the sear caused by the transplantatio n procedure. Unlike their in vivo counterparts, after I week, most cultured fetal brain cells expressed either neuron- or astrocyte-specific antigens. Conclusions. This work demonstrates that xenotransplanted fetal human brain cells are able to survive in an ischemic lesion in a rodent model. These d ata might be useful for future neural transplantation studies of treatments for cerebrovascular ischemia in humans.