Strategies to Repair Spinal Cord Injuries: Single Vs. Combined Treatments

Abstract

Several experimental strategies have been developed in past years for the repair of damages evoked in axons, myelin, and motor functions by spinal cord injuries. This chapter briefly reviews some of such strategies. On the one hand, it examines individual procedures, such as: tissue or cell transplants (i.e. evolving cells of the olfactory glia or mesenchymal cells), implants of biomaterials (fibrine and chitosan), application of enzymes (chondroitinase and ChABC), growth factors (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF; neurotrophin-3, NT-3; or glial-derived neurotrophic factor, GDNF), and drugs (myocyclines or riluzole) among others, that induce different recovery degrees in axonal regeneration, myelination, and motor performance in experimental animals. On the other hand, it also examines the recent strategy of combining some of the previous experimental procedures to potentialize the positive effects evoked by each one in experimentally spinal cord lesioned animals and explores the possible use of this strategy in future preclinical research for the treatment of spinal cord lesions.