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Development of a model of sacrocaudal spinal cord injury in cloned Yucatan minipigs for cellular transplantation research.

Research into transplantation strategies to treat spinal cord injury (SCI) is frequently performed in rodents, but translation of results to clinical patients can be poor and a large mammalian model of severe SCI is needed. The pig has been considered an optimal model species in which to perform preclinical testing, and the Yucatan minipig can be cloned successfully utilizing somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). However, induction of paralysis in pigs poses significant welfare and nursing challenges. The present study was conducted to determine whether Yucatan SCNT clones could be used to develop an SCI animal model for cellular transplantation research. First, we demonstrated that transection of the sacrocaudal spinal cord in Yucatan SCNT clones produces profound, quantifiable neurological deficits restricted to the tail. We then established that neurospheres could be isolated from brain tissue of green fluorescence protein (GFP) transfected SCNT clones. Finally, we confirmed survival of transplanted GFP-expressing neural stem cells in the SCI lesion and their differentiation into glial and neuronal lineages for up to 4 weeks without immunosuppression. We conclude that this model of sacrocaudal SCI in Yucatan SCNT clones represents a powerful research tool to investigate the effect of cellular transplantation on axonal regeneration and functional recovery.