OBJECTIVETo evaluate the brain pathological changes following exdogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) intraventricular transplantation in neonatal rats with periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), and to explore the feasibility of NSCs transplantation for the treatment of PVL in premature infants.

METHODSNSCs were prepared from E14 embryonic rat brain. Two-day-old neonatal rats were randomly divided into six groups: PVL, PVL+culture medium, PVL+NSCs, sham operation, sham operation+culture medium, and sham operation+NSCs (18-21 rats each group). Intraventricular transplantation of exdogenous NSCs was performed 72 hrs after PVL induction or sham operation. The cerebral pathological evaluation was undertaken by light microscopy 7, 14 and 21 days after transplantation.

RESULTSThe pathological changes in the cerebral white matter were gradually improved with the prolonged time after transplantation. After 21 days of transplantation, 50% of the cerebral white matter showed mild pathological changes and 50% of that showed severe pathological changes, with neuronal pathological scores of 1.28+/-0.86, in the untreated PVL group. In the PVL+NSCs group, 30% of normal white matter, 40% of mild and 30% of severe pathological changes in the white matter were observed, with neuronal pathological scores of 0.32+/-0.16, 21 days after transplantation. There were very significant differences in both of pathological changes in the cerebral white matter and neuronal pathological scores between the PVL and PVL+NSCs groups (x2=10.7, P<0.01; F=29.664, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONSIntraventricular transplantation of exdogenous NSCs can apparently improve cerebral white matter damage. It is suggested that intraventricular transplantation of NSCs is of a great potential feasibility for the treatment of PVL in premature infants.