Stem cell therapies for injured spinal cord

Abstract

Although it was long thought that the damaged adult central nervous system (CNS) cannot regenerate, spinal cord injury (SCI) is now an important target in regenerative medicine. A series of studies on stem cell-based therapies for SCI has led us to believe that neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) are a promising source for neural tissue replacement therapy after SCI, when applied appropriately. In this review, we summarize our previous findings on stem cell therapies for SCI and discuss the future directions of this work.