The roles, mechanism, and mobilization strategy of endogenous neural stem cells in brain injury

Abstract

Brain injury poses a heavy disease burden in the world, resulting in chronic deficits. Therapies for brain injuries have been focused on pharmacologic, small molecule, endocrine and cell-based therapies. Endogenous neural stem cells (eNSCs) are a group of stem cells which can be activated in vivo by damage, neurotrophic factors, physical factor stimulation, and physical exercise. The activated eNSCs can proliferate, migrate and differentiate into neuron, oligodendrocyte and astrocyte, and play an important role in brain injury repair and neural plasticity. The roles of eNSCs in the repair of brain injury include but are not limited to ameliorating cognitive function, improving learning and memory function, and promoting functional gait behaviors. The activation and mobilization of eNSCs is important to the repair of injured brain. In this review we describe the current knowledge of the common character of brain injury, the roles and mechanism of eNSCs in brain injury. And then we discuss the current mobilization strategy of eNSCs following brain injury. We hope that a comprehensive awareness of the roles and mobilization strategy of eNSCs in the repair of cerebral ischemia may help to find some new therapeutic targets and strategy for treatment of stroke.

Editorial: Therapeutic relevance and mechanisms of neuro-immune communication in brain injury

“…Brain injury leads to the loss of neural cells. Stem cells (such as neural stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells), which can proliferate, migrate, and differentiate into neural cells, can take part in nerve repair and neural plasticity by replacing the injured neural cells (Liu et al, 2022 ). Also, transplanted stem cells can suppress the neuroinflammatory response by sequestering the inflammatory/immune cells at the injury site and releasing anti-inflammatory factors (Mashkouri et al, 2016 ; Borlongan and Rosi, 2022 ).…”

Endogenous Extracellular Vesicles Participate in Brain Remodeling after Ischemic Stroke

“…One of the therapeutic strategies that has been under investigation in recent decades is the use of stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and neural progenitor cells [2]. The mobilization of endogenous stem cells towards the injured host brain may render functional benefits via cell replacement and by-stander effects (e.g., neurotrophic factor secretion) [13,14]. Recently, the secretion of extracellular vesicles by stem cells has been postulated as an equally robust brain repair process [15,16].…”