Stem and progenitor cell therapies: recent progress for spinal cord injury repair

Abstract

Mechanical trauma to the spinal cord is often accompanied by irreversible tissue damage, limited endogenous repair and permanent loss of motor, sensory and autonomic function. The implantation of exogenous cells or the stimulation of endogenous cells, to repopulate and replace or to provide a conducive environment for repair, offers a promising therapeutic direction for overcoming the multitude of obstacles facing successful recovery from spinal cord injury. Although relatively new to the scene of cell based therapies for reparative medicine, stem cells and their progenitors have been labeled as the 'cell of the future' for revolutionizing the treatment of CNS injury and neurodegenerative disorders. The following review examines the different types of stem cells and their progenitors, their utility in experimental models of spinal cord injury and explores the outstanding issues that still need to be addressed before they move towards clinical implementation.

Treatment of a Mouse Model of Spinal Cord Injury by Transplantation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Long-Term Self-Renewing Neuroepithelial-Like Stem Cells

“…Multiple therapeutic effects of NSC transplantation have been reported, and many different types of stem cells have been grafted into the injured spinal cord, yielding improved functional recovery in animal models [44,45]. However, the growth of axons through the lesion to reinnervate the side caudal to the injury has so far been very limited.…”

Effects of Olig2-Overexpressing Neural Stem Cells and Myelin Basic Protein-Activated T Cells on Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury

“…Cell transplantation is an attractive approach for the treatment of demyelinating diseases. Multiple types of cells including NSCs, glial-restricted precursors, and OPCs have been used for differentiation into mature OLs to induce axonal remyelination after transplantation into injured spinal cords [35,40,[46][47][48][49]. Although approximately 15% and 47% of transplanted glial-restricted precursors and adult OPCs, respectively, differentiate into mature OLs in the injured spinal cord [35,40], these cells are difficult to obtain and store for clinical application.…”

Alternating Current Electric Fields of Varying Frequencies: Effects on Proliferation and Differentiation of Porcine Neural Progenitor Cells

“…T he potential for neural stem cells to produce regeneration in the central nervous system (CNS) has reawakened interest in their therapeutic potential (Louro and Pearse, 2008;Pollard and Conti, 2007;Sahni and Kessler, 2010;Sharp and Keirstead, 2009). However, translation of this potential into clinical reality is proving difficult (Duncan et al, 2008;Regenberg et al, 2009).…”