Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition of the central nervous system that strongly reduces the patient’s quality of life and has large financial costs for the healthcare system. Cell therapy has shown considerable therapeutic potential for SCI treatment in different animal models. Although many different cell types have been investigated with the goal of promoting repair and recovery from injury, stem cells appear to be the most promising. Here, we review the experimental approaches that have been carried out with pluripotent stem cells, a cell type that, due to its inherent plasticity, self-renewal, and differentiation potential, represents an attractive source for the development of new cell therapies for SCI. We will focus on several key observations that illustrate the potential of cell therapy for SCI, and we will attempt to draw some conclusions from the studies performed to date.
Highlights
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating multifactorial event that affects approximately 39 cases per 1 million individuals in North America, with enormous healthcare costs
We focus our analysis on the progress that has been made using pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived cells in an effort to alleviate SCI
Fujimoto and colleagues showed that iPSC–neural stem cells (NSC) have a therapeutic potential comparable with NSC isolated from human fetal spinal cord in a mouse acute model of thoracic SCI
Summary
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating multifactorial event that affects approximately 39 cases per 1 million individuals in North America, with enormous healthcare costs. Preclinical efficacy and safety data in a nude rat model of cervical SCI showed improved locomotor performance, using the automated TreadScan system, when human AST-OPC1 were administered directly into the cervical spinal cord in subacute injury, and no adverse effects were reported [27].
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