Introdution: Stroke is one of the most common diseases caused by occlusion or rupture of blood vessels in brain. It brings heavily loads for families and societies. Although some new strategies including treatment of tissue plasminogen activator have been applied in the clinic, these methods do not have perfect effect. Accordingly, more effective therapeutic strategies need to be developed. This study was conducted to investigate the action of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) on the neural stem cells in the subventricular zone of the rat after focal cerebral ischemia.

Methods: The rats were induced to permanent focal cerebral ischemia models with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCA0). Test groups consisted of three groups: MCAO alone, intravenous infusion of 1 ml PBS at 24 hours after MCAO, and intravenous infusion of 2×106 BMSCs 24 hours after MCAO. Then, the groups were divided to investigate at 7 and 14 days after MACO. Neurological functions were detected to use Zausinger evaluation meanwhile, 5-bromodeoxyuridine was injected to label the proliferating cells in the subventricular zone, and double-immunofluoroscent technologies were used to identify the cell type.

Results: Neurological functional scores of BMSCs-treated group were higher than other two groups (p<0.05) at 7 and 14 days after MACO. BrdU-positive cells in SVZ of ipsilateral ischemia of BMSCs-treated group were more than two controls (p<0.05) at 14 days after MCAO double-immunofluorescence label demonstrated that BrdU-positive cells co-located with markers of neuron and astrocyte.

Discussion: BMSCs can promote the neurological function of the rats with permanent focal cerebral ischemia, which may associate with the neurogenesis in the subventricular zone.