Open AccessStem cells for spinal cord injuries bearing translational potential
Author(s) -
Kyriakos Dalamagkas,
Magdalini Tsintou,
Alexander M. Seifalian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
neural regeneration research/neural regeneration research
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1876-7958
pISSN - 1673-5374
DOI - 10.4103/1673-5374.224360
Subject(s) - spinal cord injury , stem cell , medicine , induced pluripotent stem cell , neural stem cell , regenerative medicine , neuroscience , olfactory ensheathing glia , clinical trial , embryonic stem cell , panacea (medicine) , stem cell therapy , bioinformatics , spinal cord , transplantation , pathology , surgery , biology , psychiatry , central nervous system , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , olfactory bulb , alternative medicine , gene
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly debilitating neurological disease, which still lacks effective treatment strategies, causing significant financial burden and distress to the affected families. Nevertheless, nanotechnology and regenerative medicine strategies holding promise for the development of novel therapies that would reach from bench to bedside to serve the SCI patients. There has already been significant progress in the field of cell-based therapies, with the clinical application for SCI, currently in phase II of the clinical trial. Stem cells (e.g., induced pluripotent stem cells, fetal stem cells, human embryonic stem cells, and olfactory ensheathing cells) are certainly not to be considered the panacea for neural repair but, especially when combined with rehabilitation or other combinatorial approaches using the help of nanotechnology, they seem to be the source of some of the most promising and clinical translatable cell-based therapies that could help solving impactful problems on neural repair.