Cell transplantation therapy using adult stem cells has recently been identified as a potential treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI). But, recovery after traumatic SCI is very limited. As dogs are physiologically much more similar to human compared with other traditional mammalian models in disease presentation and clinical responses, a number of researches demonstrated canis familiaris is a suitable model for human diseases. This study investigated the effect of transplantation of canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cMSC) and neural-induced cMSC (nMSC) to understand how these cells improve neurological function in canine SCI model. The differentiation of cMSC into neural precursor cells was induced in dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium supplemented with N2-supplement, dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and butylated hydroxyanisole. SCI was induced between T1 and T2 by surgical hemi-section in adult dogs, and then assigned to two groups according to the applied cell types (cMSC vs nMSC). Pelleted cMSC or nMSC were transplanted directly into the injured site after SCI, respectively. Analysis of motor function after transplantation was evaluated by modified Olby score. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), histological and immunohistichemical analysis were also performed. Functional recovery in group of cMSC was increasing gradually after transplantation and was higher than nMSC. In MRI, we could not confirm any difference between the cMSC and nMSC experimental groups. Immunohistochemically, beta3-tubuline and nestin were observed in injury site of two experimental groups with the expression level close to non-injured groups. Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells could promote neuronal reconstruction and repair motor function in SCI. These showed mesenchymal stem cells could be a great candidate as a therapeutic tools in degeneration disease, and dogs could be used to explore human regenerative medicine as a promising animal model. This research was supported by iPET (Grants 110056032CG000), Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea.

• E. Y. Kim(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• J. H. Lee(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• K. J. Kim(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• K. S. Park(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• Y. B. Park(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• Y. N. Ha(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• M. Kim(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• K. W. Han(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• X. X Li(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• J. Yu(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• D. S. Lee(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• J. Y. Park(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)
• M. K. Kim(Lab. of Animal Reproduction and Physiology, Department of Animal Resource and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture Life Science, Chungnam National University)