Human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells-harvested mitochondrial transplantation improved motor function in TBI models through rescuing neuronal cells from apoptosis and alleviating astrogliosis and microglia activation

• Published in: International immunopharmacology 2023-05, Vol.118, p.110106-110106, Article 110106
• Main Authors: Bamshad, Chia, Habibi Roudkenar, Mehryar, Abedinzade, Mahmoud, Yousefzadeh Chabok, Shahrokh, Pourmohammadi-Bejarpasi, Zahra, Najafi-Ghalehlou, Nima, Sato, Tomoaki, Tomita, Kazuo, Jahanian-Najafabadi, Ali, Feizkhah, Alireza, Mohammadi Roushandeh, Amaneh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - physiology; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; Gliosis; Humans; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Microglia; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial transplantation; Rats; Sensorimotor behaviour; Traumatic brain injury; Umbilical Cord
• ISSN: 1567-5769; 1878-1705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110106

•Mitochondrial transplantation protects the brain tissue against secondary injury after TBI.•Apoptosis decreased in brain tissue after mitochondrial transplantation in TBI model.•Neurobehavioral activity of animals dramatically improved after organelle transplantation.•The transplanted mitochondria have been tracked successfully in brain tissue. Each year, traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes a high rate of mortality throughout the world and those who survive have lasting disabilities. Given that the brain is a particularly dynamic organ with a high energy consumption rate, the inefficiency of current TBI treatment options highlights the necessity of repairing damaged brain tissue at the cellular and molecular levels, which according to research is aggravated due to ATP deficiency and reactive oxygen species surplus. Taking into account that mitochondria contribute to generating energy and controlling cellular stress, mitochondrial transplantation as a new treatment approach has lately reduced complications in a number of diseases by supplying healthy and functional mitochondria to the damaged tissue. For this reason, in this study, we used this technique to transplant human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs)-derived mitochondria as a suitable source for mitochondrial isolation into rat models of TBI to examine its therapeutic benefit and the results showed that the successful mitochondrial internalisation in the neuronal cells significantly reduced the number of brain cells undergoing apoptosis, alleviated astrogliosis and microglia activation, retained normal brain morphology and cytoarchitecture, and improved sensorimotor functions in a rat model of TBI. These data indicate that human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells-isolated mitochondrial transplantation improves motor function in a rat model of TBI via rescuing neuronal cells from apoptosis and alleviating astrogliosis and microglia activation, maybe as a result of restoring the lost mitochondrial content.