Figure 1

Local mesenchymal stem cell administration does not provide significant advantage compared with systemic infusion. (a) Clinical course of peptide 33 to 55 of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in C57Bl6 mice after intrathechal (i.t.) or intravenous (i.v.) mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) injection. Arrow, day of injection. *P ≤0.05 Mann-Whitney U test. (b) Analysis of demyelination in the spinal cord of treated mice; 5 μm sections were stained with Luxol Fast Blue and the demyelinated area was expressed as a percentage of the total surface area. *P ≤0.01 Mann-Whitney U test. (c) Counts of luciferase-labeled MSCs in the central nervous system (CNS) of EAE-affected mice. Luciferase-positive MSCs were detected using a rabbit anti-luciferase monoclonal antibody (Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated) after 24 hours and 40 days from intravenous and intratechal injection. Six CNS tissue sections per mouse were analyzed and in each section the number of positive cells was reported as the number of positive elements/mm².