Introduction
Transient cerebral ischemia is a pandemic
neurological disorder and the main aim of medical intervention is to reduce complications. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal cells (hUCMs) are capable of differentiating into neural-like cells (NLC) in vitro, therefore we investigated the neuroprotective potential of these cells in comparison to
aspirin and in combination (NLC-
Aspirin) on spatial memory and neural morphologic changes in male rats submitted to
transient cerebral ischemia. Methods Ten days after the intervention, the improvement in learning and memory were assessed in the animals by Morris Water Maze. Thence, the animals were examined for the presence of
PKH26 labeled cells in the ischemic area of the brain, the
infarct volume and neural changes in the brain tissue. Results Significant spatial memory deficits in the ischemic animals were detected compared with the control animals. The learning and memory were significantly improved (p ≤ 0.05) in the
aspirin and NLC groups compared with the ischemic animals. Co-treatment of
aspirin and NLCs did not improve the outcome. Moreover,
infarction volume and neural changes were significantly altered when
aspirin or NLCs were administered. Conclusions Our data suggest the significant neuroprotective potential of
aspirin and neural-like cells derived from hUCM cells in the treatment of brain
ischemic stroke. Further studies are required to evaluate possible underlying mechanisms, and to evaluate the possible interactions between
aspirin and stem cells in a joint treatment aimed at the recovery of
cognitive impairments.