Dental stem cells improve memory and reduce cell death in rat seizure model.

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that significantly affects the quality of life of patients. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of dental pulp stem cell (DPSC) transplantation in decreasing inflammation and cell death in brain cells, thus reducing seizure damage. We induced seizures in rats using intraperitoneal injections of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). In the PTZ + DPSC group, we conducted bilateral hippocampal transplantation of DPSCs in PTZ-lesioned rat models. After 1 month, we performed post-graft analysis and measured some behavioral factors, such as working memory and long-term memory, using a T-maze test and passive avoidance test, respectively. We investigated the immunohistopathology and distribution of astrocyte cells through light microscopy and Sholl analysis. Additionally, we employed the Voronoi tessellation method to estimate the spatial distribution of the cells in the hippocampus. Compared to the control group, we observed a reduction in astrogliosis, astrocyte process length, the number of branches, and intersections distal to the soma in the hippocampus of the PTZ + DPSC group. Further analysis indicated that the grafted DPSCs decreased the expression of caspase-3 in the hippocampus of rats with induced seizures. Moreover, the DPSCs transplant protected hippocampal pyramidal neurons against PTZ toxicity and improved the spatial distribution of the hippocampal neurons. Our findings suggest that DPSCs transplant can be an effective modifier of astrocyte reactivation and inflammatory responses.