Thirty-four dogs with no deep pain perception due to acute thoracolumbar intervertebral disc disease underwent decompression surgery within 1 week of diagnosis. All dogs underwent hemilaminectomy. Adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) were transplanted into the injured spinal cord parenchyma for the AD-MSCs transplant dogs. Long-term outcome was evaluated at the end of the follow-up period (> 6 months). AD-MSCs combination treatment showed better recovery outcomes compared to decompression surgery alone. These results indicate that this stem cell therapy is a potential therapeutic strategy to overcome the limitations of treatment for spinal cord injury in clinical medicine.
Acute Disease ; Adipose Tissue/cytology ; Animals ; Decompression, Surgical/veterinary ; Dog Diseases/*therapy ; Dogs ; Female ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration/therapy/*veterinary ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement/therapy/*veterinary ; Male ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation/*veterinary ; Pain Perception ; Treatment Outcome