Effects of intravenous human umbilical cord blood CD34+ stem cell therapy versus levodopa in experimentally induced Parkinsonism in mice
Authors: Dina M Abo-Elmatty
Soha Essawy
Zenab Abdel-Hady
Noha Abo-Grisha
Journal: Archives of Medical Science (2013)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine; CD34+ stem cells; Parkinsonism; levodopa; mice.
Affiliations: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Suez, Egypt., Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Suez, Egypt., Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Suez Canal University, Suez, Egypt., Department of Histology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Suez, Egypt.

Abstract:  Introduction: Parkinsonism is a neurodegenerative disease with impaired motor function. The current research was directed to investigate the effect of CD34+ stem cells versus levodopa in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced Parkinsonism. Material and methods: Mice were divided into 4 groups; saline-injected, MPTP: received four MPTP injections (20 mg/kg, i.p.) at 2 h intervals, MPTP groups treated with levodopa/carbidopa (100/10 mg/kg/twice/day for 28 days) or single intravenous injection of 10(6) CD34+ stem cells/mouse at day 7 and allowed to survive until the end of week 5. Results: Levodopa and stem cells improved MPTP-induced motor deficits; they abolished the difference in stride length, decreased percentage of foot slip errors and increased ambulation, activity factor and mobility duration in parkinsonian mice (p &lt; 0.05). Further, they significantly (p &lt; 0.05) increased striatal dopamine (85.3 ±4.3 and 110.6 ±5.3) and ATP levels (10.6 ±1.1 and 15.5 ±1.14) compared to MPTP (60.1 ±3.9 pmol/g and 3.6 ±0.09 mmol/g, respectively) (p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, mitochondrial DNA from mice treated with levodopa or stem cells was in intact form; average concentration was (52.8 ±3.01 and 107.8 ±8.6) and no appreciable fragmentation of nuclear DNA was found compared to MPTP group. Regarding tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunostaining, stem cell group showed a marked increase of percentage of TH-immunopositive neurons (63.55 ±5.2) compared to both MPTP (37.6 ±3.1) and levodopa groups (41.6 ±3.5). Conclusions: CD34+ cells ameliorated motor, biochemical and histological deficits in MPTP-parkinsonian mice, these effects were superior to those produced by levodopa that would be promising for the treatment of PD. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 ![file] Plagiarising [a comment by Elisabeth Bik] : This paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels. Despite these similarities, these papers are authored by researchers from different departments and institutes, with almost no overlap in authors. The list of these papers is available here: https: docs.google.com spreadsheets d 1KXqTAyl4j-jVorFPMD2XRpr76LcIKJ0CVyIvRj0exYQ edit?usp=sharing A more detailed description of this set of papers, suspected to all be generated by a common source, a paper mill , can be found here: - https: forbetterscience.com 2020 01 24 the-full-service-paper-mill-and-its-chinese-customers (January 2020) - https: scienceintegritydigest.com 2020 02 21 the-tadpole-paper-mill (February 2020) The same paper mill has been described in these papers: - Jana Christopher - Systematic fabrication of scientific images revealed - FEBS Letters (2018) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13201 - Jennifer A Byrne and Jana Christopher - Digital magic, or the dark arts of the 21st centuryu2014how can journals and peer reviewers detect manuscripts and publications from paper mills? - FEBS Letters (2020) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13747 , 
 Retracted [9 June 2021] . ------------------------------------- The above article, published online on 28 May 2018 in Wiley Online Library , has been retracted by agreement between the the journal s Editor in Chief, Prof. Dr. Christian Behl, and Wiley Periodicals LLC. The retraction has been agreed following an investigation based on allegations raised by a third party. The authors asked to retract this manuscript as the experimental data in the article could not be reproduced and original data are no longer available to validate the conclusions. ,