Transplantation of fetal brain tissue into the site of intracerebral hemorrhage in rats.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether transplantation of fetal forebrain tissue into the hematoma site of rats with intrastriatal hemorrhage could improve the final neurological outcome. Nine to twelve days after collagenase-induced intracerebral hemorrhage, day 14 fetal forebrain fragments were transplanted into hematoma site. Quantitative measures of behavioral function were repeatedly evaluated until the rats were killed 10 weeks after grafting. Histology was used to assess the survival of the grafts and overall brain morphology. Surviving grafts were located in the residual cavity at the hematoma site. However, comparison of rats with live transplants to control rats with no transplant, sham transplant, or dead tissue transplant revealed no statistically significant differences in any of the motor tests.