Distribution and in situ proliferation patterns of intravenously injected immortalized human neural stem-like cells in rats with focal cerebral ischemia

Neural stem cells are considered as a candidate for cell replacement therapy in various neurological diseases. To investigate whether human neural stem cells can migrate into the adult ischemic rat brain, we transplanted immortalized human neural 'tem-like' cells intravenously 24 h after focal cerebral ischemia. The intravenously injected human neural stem-like cells were found around the infarcted area, differentiated into neurons and astrocytes in the lesioned areas, and survive up to 56 days after transplantation. The number of the injected cells increased between 7 and 14 days after transplantation with incorporating BrdU. Our findings show that intravenously injected human neural stem-like cells may incorporate into the ischemic brain, and undergo proliferation responding to the endogenous mitotic signal during the acute period of focal ischemia.