Injection of BMSCs into the tail vertebrae vein of mice promotes spinal cord repair by inhibiting the HMGB1/RAGE signaling pathway after acute contusive spinal cord injury.

Research shows that transplanted bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been shown to improve functional outcomes in mice with spinal cord injury (SCI). Many experimental centers have demonstrated that systemic delivery of MSCs in mice can treat neurological diseases, but whether or how it works in acute spinal cord injury is not understood. Various methods such as Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale score and biological detection of inflammatory factors were used to test the changes in inflammatory factors of spinal cord injury at different time points in 24 h, 7 d, and 14 d. Twenty-four hours after injury, the functional measurement results of the injured group were significantly weakened compared with the control rats. The functional results of the BMSCs injection injured group were also significantly weakened compared with the control rats. There was no statistical difference between the injured group and the BMSCs injection group. However, the injury group had the highest mortality rate (p < 0.05). Biochemical results showed that compared with the control group, the expression of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and related inflammatory factors in the injury group and BMSCs injection group increased significantly at 7 d after the experiment in Western blot. Similarly, the expression of HMGB1 and RAGE in the injury group was also greater than that in the injection group, and there was a statistical difference in immunohistochemical assessment. Injecting BMSCs into rats with acute spinal cord injury could reduce rat mortality and improve prognostic functional measurements after SCI. BMSCs may promote spinal cord re-repair by inhibiting the HMGB1/RAGE signaling pathway after acute contusive spinal cord injury.