Background & aim: Spinal cord injury is a devastating damage that can cause motor and sensory deficits reducing quality of life and life expectancy of patients. Stem cell transplantation can be one of the promising therapeutic strategies. Bone marrow is a rich source of stem cells that is able to differentiate into various cell types. In this study, bone marrow stem cells were transplanted into mice spinal cord injury model to evaluate the motor function test.

Methods: Bone marrow stem cells were isolated from 3 mice. Thirty six mice were randomly divided into 3 groups: the control, sham and experimental. In sham group, mice were subjected to spinal cord compression. In experimental group, one day after lesion, isolated stem cells (200,000) were injected intravenously. Assessment of locomotor function was done by Toyama Mouse Score (TMS) after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 week post-injury. The data were analyzed using one-way Analysis of Variance and Tukey tests and statistical software Graph Pad and SPSS.P > 0/05 was considered as significant difference.

 Results: The score of TMS after cell transplantation was higher in cell transplantation group (experimental), while it was significantly higher after fifth week when compared to other groups.

Conclusion: The increase in TMS score in cell transplantation group showed that injection of stem cells in acute spinal cord injury can have a therapeutic effect and promote locomotor function.