Regenerative Medicine for Spinal Cord Injury

～The possibility of therapy using bone marrow stromal cells for improved motor and sensory dysfunction from spinal disorders～

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has been considered to be irreversible. However, this is not true. There has been remarkable progress in the basic research of new treatments for SCI. In this article, we review these paths,and highlight the possibility that these experimental strategies can be applied to clinical medicine. Especially we discuss recent progress in the effect of treatments using bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) on SCI. And we present our recent studies concerning with BMSCs transplantation for SCI rats in vivo and the capacity of BMSCs to differentiate into neural stem like cells in vitro. In vivo study, we demonstrate that few BMSCs can differentiate into neural like cells, but functional recovery resulted from BMSCs treatment. In vitro study, we demonstrate our original cell operation methods of induction from BMSCs into neurospheres. It is our hope that further understanding of the mechanisms underlying functional recovery will lead to therapeutic strategies in humans. Less than 10% of the axons of the spinal cord can support substantial function, I believe that the therapeutic application of BMSCs and unique cells origin for BMSCs will lead SCI patients to return to walk again.