From Transcriptome to Behavior: Intranasal Injection of Late Passage Human Olfactory Stem Cells Displays Potential in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, which is caused by the loss of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons. Thus, cell replacement therapy (CRT) might be regarded as an alternative therapy to effectively treat motor functional defects in PD patients. Human olfactory ectomesenchymal stem cells (OE-MSCs) are a novel type of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with a strong tendency to differentiate into DAergic neurons. However, there are various barriers to successful CRT including the proliferation capacity of stem cells at higher passage numbers as well as the route of stem cell delivery. In this regard, we aimed to explore the efficacy of late passage OE-MSC administration through the intranasal (IN) route in PD rat models. Herein, the proliferation capacity of OE-MSCs was compared at early and late passage numbers; then, the results were validated via RNA sequencing analysis. Subsequently, the efficacy of IN injection of late passage OE-MSC in PD models was evaluated. The results manifested the absence of noticeable differences in proliferation capacity and signaling pathways in OE-MSCs at early and late passage numbers. Moreover, it was found that the IN administration of OE-MSCs with a high passage number substantially increased the levels of DAergic markers and improved the motor function in rat models of PD. Overall, our findings suggested that OE-MSCs with a high passage number are a promising CRT candidate due to their fundamental potential to provide a large number of cells with an enormous proliferation capacity. Moreover, they exhibit the high efficiency of IN administration as a noninvasive route of late-passage OE-MSC delivery for CRT, particularly for PD.