Improvement of the pilocarpine epilepsy model in rat using bone marrow stromal cell therapy

Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy is one of the most common types of epilepsy. Cytotherapy was tried for several neurological disorders. In this investigation, bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were used in order to evaluate the recovery of epileptic rats induced by pilocarpine. Methods: The rats were divided into four groups: a negative control, treated groups, and epileptic rats treated with the vehicle only. The animals in the chronic phase were monitored for three weeks using Racine scale. BMSCs were labeled with BrdU and injected intravenously. After 6 weeks, the rats were killed and processed in paraffin as well as immunohistochemical techniques. Results: The results of the behavioral test showed that the number of seizures significantly decreased in treatment groups. Histopathology of the tissues from the untreated rats showed cell death and neurophagia. The numerical density of neurons per area was significantly higher in the treated groups than in the untreated ones. BMSCs localized in the hippocampus of the treated animals. Discussion: The results showed that there is structural and functional improvement in the epileptic rats treated with BMSCs.