Intrahippocampal transplantation of mesenchymal stem-cell in kainate-induced epileptic mice

• Grant number: 13/22059-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Beatriz de Oliveira Monteiro
• Grantee: Natália Staut Pinhal
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Epileptic seizures represent a group of disorders manifested by spontaneous and recurrent seizures. Most of epileptic patients become resistant to antiepileptic drugs, justifying the need of development of new therapeutic strategies to treat epilepsy. The aim of this project is to evaluate how kainate-induced epileptic mice respond to intrahipocampal transplantation of mesenchymal cells from adipose tissue (MCAT). The mice will be observed for the presence and frequency of epileptic seizures and their brains will be evaluated by immunohistochemistry and biochemical tests.Work carried out by our group from the Laboratory of Neurophysiology showed that in mice transplanted with bone marrow cells it was possible to block the seizures induced by maximum electroconvulsive shock (MES), especially in tonic phase (Ferrazoli et al., 2012), showing the protective effects of these cells in acute seizures. In this same laboratory, it has just been obtained results with reduction of tonic seizures induced by MES in mice transplanted with MCAT in the hippocampus (Tamura et al., 2013, in preparation). Thus, the present project aims to verify the hypothesis that the transplantation of mesenchymal cells can induce a neuroprotective response against the chronic seizures, and elucidate, by histological analysis, whether these cells act in a paracrine or local manner.