Neural progenitor cell apoptosis and differentiation were affected by activated microglia in spinal cord slice culture.

Neural progenitor cell (NPC) transplantation offers great potential to treat spinal cord injury (SCI). NPCs may replace lost neurons or oligodendrocytes and act as a source of neurotrophic factors to support survival of remaining cells. However, their efficiency was limited by poor survival after transplantation, and they tended more to differentiate into astrocytes, but not neurons and oligodendrocytes. This study investigated whether activated microglia is a factor that contributes to this phenomenon. Organotypic spinal cord slice (SCS) culture was used to mimic the local environment after SCI, and NPCs were co-cultured with them to share the culture medium. After specific depletion of microglia in the SCSs with clodronate loaded liposome, the apoptotic rate of NPCs decreased, more NPCs differentiated into neurons, and glial differentiation was impaired. This suggested that microglia may impair NPC survival, and neuronal differentiation, but improve astrocyte differentiation. In NPC transplantation strategy for SCI, microglia would be manipulated to improve the survival and neuronal differentiation of NPCs.