Transplantation of Von Hippel-Lindau peptide delivered neural stem cells promotes recovery in the injured rat spinal cord.

For transplantation of neural stem cells (NSCs) to repair the injured spinal cord, neuronal differentiation of NSCs before transplantation has more satisfactory effect because differentiation grafted NSCs are restricted to the glial lineage. Therefore, we focused on the Von Hippel-Lindau protein (VHL), which has the potential to induce neuronal differentiation of NSCs. Here, we show the transplantation of protein transduction domain-linked VHL peptide-delivered NSCs promotes the repair of the injured spinal cord. Transplantation of protein transduction domain-linked VHL peptide-delivered NSCs more recovered the behaviors of the rats than that of nondelivered NSCs, and engrafted NSCs differentiated to neuronal marker positive cells. Thus, our finding of the neuronal differentiation through VHL-peptide transfer has the great potential to cure the spinal cord injury. NeuroReport 20:1559-1563 (C) 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.