Effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor-pretreated neuron stem cell transplantation on Alzheimer's disease model mice.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common case of dementia and its possible therapies, such as neuron stem cell (NSC) transplantation therapy, have been studied for years. In order to improve NSC transplantation effects, we were inspired to pretreat NSC using brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) before transplantation. The AD mouse model was constructed and effects of BDNF+NSC transplant group and traditional NSC transplant group were compared using the four indicators: conditions of learning and memory ability recovery tested by Morris Water Maze (MWM), number of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, expression of synaptophysin, and number of acetylcholinesterase (ACHE)-positive fibers detected by chemical staining. Results showed all the four indicators were significantly lower in the AD model group than the control group (P < 0.05). Traditional NSC transplantation could improve these indicators to some extent but still possessed significant differences from the control group (P < 0.05). Especially, the BDNF+NSC transplant group showed significant improvements in the four indicators when compared with the AD model group (P < 0.05). Taken these data together, BDNF pretreatment improved the NSC transplantation effects, showing advantages over the traditional NSC transplantation. Our study could facilitate the application of stem cell transplantation therapy to AD treatment.