Treatment Strategies to Promote Regeneration in Experimental Spinal Cord Injury Models

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts the axonal pathways and abruptly affects sensory, motor, and autonomic functions below the injury. Physical disabilities in injured persons linked with the type, severity, the level of the spinal cord at which injury occurs, and the axonal pathways that damaged due to injury. SCI initiates the cascade of secondary damage to neuronal and non-neuronal cells and causing the degeneration of the axonal pathways, which ultimately leads to functional deficits. A variety of therapeutic strategies and training paradigm alone or in combination, have been used to promote regeneration in the experimental model of SCI. These regenerative strategies categorized into three categories. The first category of regenerative strategies consists of molecules that are used to block or neutralize the growth inhibitory molecule, such as chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) Nogo, Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), and oligodendrocytes myelin glycoprotein (OMgp). The second category of regenerative strategies focusses on the application of various growth factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) to promote axonal regeneration. And the third category of regenerative strategies focusses on transplantation of various types of cells such as Schwann cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS), embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs). This review provides an overview of current researches to enhance the growth of severed axonal pathways, which ultimately help to develop an effective therapy to restore sensory and motor function following SCI.