Deans' stroke musings: Transplanted Iron Oxide Nanoparticle-Labeled Mesenchymal Stem Cells Exhibit ex vivo Neuronal Firing Activity in Ischemic Stroke Rats

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Transplanted Iron Oxide Nanoparticle-Labeled Mesenchymal Stem Cells Exhibit ex vivo Neuronal Firing Activity in Ischemic Stroke Rats

Great, now can your incompetent? doctor and hospital get human testing going?

Do you prefer your doctor and hospital incompetence NOT KNOWING? OR NOT DOING?

Transplanted Iron Oxide Nanoparticle-Labeled Mesenchymal Stem Cells Exhibit ex vivo Neuronal Firing Activity in Ischemic Stroke Rats

Authors Huang DM, Lu CW , Hsiao JK

Received 25 February 2025

Accepted for publication 15 August 2025

Published 28 August 2025 Volume 2025:20 Pages 10469—10486

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S518933

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2

Editor who approved publication: Prof. Dr. RDK

Dong-Ming Huang,¹ Chen-Wen Lu,² Jong-Kai Hsiao^2,³

¹Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan; ²Department of Medical Imaging, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City, Taiwan; ³School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

Correspondence: Jong-Kai Hsiao, Department of Medical Imaging, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, No. 289, Jian Guo Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City, 23142, Taiwan, Tel +886-2-6628-9779-61714, Fax +886-2-86272976, Email jongkai@tzuchi.com.tw

Purpose: Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy shows promise in preclinical ischemic stroke models, yet clinical translation remains inconsistent. To address this gap, we investigated whether labeling MSCs with Ferucarbotran enables magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tracking and enhances neural differentiation and functional integration, particularly focusing on the novel observation of spontaneous neuronal firing activity in transplanted cells.
Methods: Rat MSCs (rMSCs) were transduced with red fluorescent protein (RFP) and labeled with Ferucarbotran to generate Fer-RFP⁺ rMSCs. These were transplanted into rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion. MRI tracked cell migration and localization. Behavioral recovery was evaluated via the corner test, modified neurological severity score (mNSS), and infarct volume analysis. Post-transplantation, Fer-RFP⁺ rMSCs were magnetically isolated for ex vivo electrophysiological and immunocytochemical analyses.
Results: Ferucarbotran labeling did not impair rMSC viability and enhanced in vitro proliferation. MRI effectively visualized Fer-RFP⁺ rMSC migration to ischemic regions. Rats receiving Fer-RFP⁺ rMSCs showed significantly improved functional recovery and reduced infarct volumes compared to controls. Remarkably, ex vivo isolated Fer-RFP⁺ rMSCs exhibited spontaneous neuronal firing on multi-electrode array recordings and expressed the neuronal marker NeuN.
Conclusion: Ferucarbotran-labeled MSCs not only serve as MRI-visible tracers but also exhibit neuronal electrophysiological properties post-transplantation in an ischemic stroke model. The emergence of spontaneous neuronal firing in ex vivo transplanted MSCs suggests functional neuronal differentiation, potentially underpinning the observed therapeutic effects. These findings offer new mechanistic insights into MSC-mediated stroke recovery and may enhance the translational relevance of MSC-based therapies.

Keywords: mesenchymal stem cells, iron oxide nanoparticles, ischemic stroke, magnetic resonance imaging, neural differentiation, neuronal firing activity