Neurotrophic Factors Used to Treat Spinal Cord Injury

Holistic Approach to Axonal Regeneration in Cases of Spinal Cord Injury

“…Tuinstra et al further established a multichannel bridge coating which was capable of delivering neurotrophin encoding lentiviruses to promote axonal regeneration following SCI [90]. Ideally, artificial tissue engineering techniques are meant to coat neural multichannel bridges with Schwann cells and macrophages, growth factors and neurotrophic factors, and an extracellular matrix in order to stimulate axonal growth and movement [54,64,91]. In summary, researchers should seek to improve the efficacy of SCI treatment, combined with the simultaneous transplantation of stem cells, by developing techniques which guide the regrowth of nerve cells.…”

“…They participate in neurogenesis, neuronal survival, axonal growth, synaptogenesis, and activity-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity [63][64][65][66]. Neuron survival and the regeneration of fiber tracts is aided by neurotrophic factors, including, neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) [67], neurotrophin-4/5 (NT-4/5) [68], brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [69], glial cell linederived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) [70], and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) [71].…”

“…GDNF is a potent neurotrophic factor that provides neuroprotective effects and increases axonal regeneration, plasticity, and remyelination [72]. Preclinical models of SCI have demonstrated that neurotrophic factors are instrumental in the post-injury remodeling of spinal cord circuitry [19,63,64].…”

NG2 Glia: Novel Roles beyond Re-/Myelination

“…study of cultured mouse NG2 glia [87,116] Neurotrophic function, brain plasticity [117] Neurotrophin-3, NT-3 CM of cultured human NG2 glia [114]; Gene expr. study of cultured rat NG2 glia [93] Neurotrophic function, neuronal survival and differentiation [118,119] Neurotrophin 4/5, NT-4/5 Gene expr. study of cultured mouse NG2 glia [87] Neurotrophic function, neuronal survival and differentiation [120] Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor, GDNF Gene expr.…”

Stretching adversely modulates locomotor capacity following spinal cord injury via activation of nociceptive afferents.

“…The underlying cause of such poor outcomes and dreadful prognosis in the majority of SCI cases is that central nervous system (CNS) does not regenerate [2]. Numerous research studies have been conducted over the past 70 years focusing on repair of the damaged neuronal connections across the spinal cord lesion involving different techniques from growth factor delivery [3,4] to transplantations of various kinds of cells [5][6][7][8][9] into the SCI epicenter. Unfortunately, none of the studies resulted in any significant functional improvement and despite superior efforts the evidence of meaningful anatomical/structural changes (neuronal regeneration) at the lesion site following such manipulations is lacking with the exception of few studies [10][11][12].…”