Open AccessConcise Review: Spinal Cord Injuries: How Could Adult Mesenchymal and Neural Crest Stem Cells Take Up the Challenge?
Author(s) -
Neirinckx Virginie,
Cantinieaux Dorothée,
Coste Cécile,
Rogister Bernard,
Franzen Rachelle,
Wislet-Gendebien Sabine
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
stem cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.159
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1549-4918
pISSN - 1066-5099
DOI - 10.1002/stem.1579
Subject(s) - mesenchymal stem cell , neural crest , stem cell , biology , spinal cord injury , neural stem cell , stem cell therapy , neuroscience , transplantation , spinal cord , adult stem cell , anatomy , bioinformatics , cellular differentiation , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , surgery , embryo , biochemistry , gene
A bstract Since several years, adult/perinatal mesenchymal and neural crest stem cells have been widely used to help experimental animal to recover from spinal cord injury. More interestingly, recent clinical trials confirmed the beneficial effect of those stem cells, which improve functional score of patients suffering from such lesions. However, a complete understanding of the mechanisms of stem cell‐induced recovery is seriously lacking. Indeed, spinal cord injuries gathered a wide range of biochemical and physiopathological events (such as inflammation, oxidative stress, axonal damage, demyelination, etc.) and the genuine healing process after cell transplantation is not sufficiently defined. This review aims to sum up recent data about cell therapy in spinal cord lesions using mesenchymal or recently identified neural crest stem cells, by describing precisely which physiopathological parameter is affected and the exact processes underlying the observed changes. Overall, although significant advances are acknowledged, it seems that further deep mechanistic investigation is needed for the development of optimized and efficient cell‐based therapy protocols. S tem C ells 2014;32:829–843