Research progress of endogenous neural stem cells in spinal cord injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe disabling disease, which mainly manifests as impairments of sensory and motor functions, sexual function, bladder and intestinal functions, respiratory and cardiac functions below the injury plane.In addition, the condition has a profound effect on the mental health of patients, which often results in severe sequelae. Some patients may be paraplegic for life or even die, which places a huge burden on the family and society. There is still no effective treatment for SCI. Studies have confirmed that endogenous neural stem cells (ENSCs), as multipotent neural stem cells, which are located in the ependymal region of the central canal of the adult mammalian spinal cord, are activated after SCI and then differentiate into various nerve cells to promote endogenous repair and regeneration. However, the central canal of the spinal cord is often occluded to varying degrees in adults, and residual ependymal cells cannot be activated and do not proliferate after SCI. Besides, the destruction of the microenvironment after SCI is also an important factor that affects the proliferation and differentiation of ENSCs and spinal cord repair. Therefore, this review describes the role of ENSCs in SCI, in terms of the origin, transformation, treatment, and influencing factors, to provide new ideas for clinical treatment of SCI.

Improved Recovery of Complete Spinal Cord Transection by a Plasma-Modified Fibrillar Scaffold

“…Substrate topography and electrical stimulation have been studied as cues for stem cell differentiation towards neuronal lineage, which express MAP2 and Tuj1 neuronal markers [ 48 , 97 ]. Since the spinal cord has stem cell niches [ 98 , 99 ], stimulation of inactive endogenous stem cells is a potential strategy for SCI recovery [ 100 ]. In this study, MAP2 expression was found over the fibers of the implant, suggesting neural extension through the scaffolds, which might contribute to spared tissue reconnection between the transected spinal cord stumps.…”

P75 neurotrophin receptor as a therapeutic target for drug development to treat neurological diseases

“…The lack of effective therapies for spinal cord injury demands the need for identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Myelinating oligodendrocytes have been recognized as an alternative target that can help improve functional recovery after SCI (Totoiu & Keirstead, 2005; Wang & Yuan, 2022) as increasing oligodendrocytes survival could potentially spare many more axons. It has been reported that p75NTR is crucial for the death of oligodendrocytes, and it activates the apoptosis of oligodendrocytes following spinal cord injury, which is mainly mediated by proNGF (Beattie et al, 2002).…”

Microarray analysis of lncRNAs and mRNAs in spinal cord contusion rats with iPSC-derived A2B5+ oligodendrocyte precursor cells transplantation

“…In recent years, stem cell-based treatments have exerted practical effects in alleviating disorders and restoring injured tissues [ 6 , 7 ][ 50 ], especially in studies reporting the efficacy of stem cell transplantation in treating neurological deficits [ 8 , 9 ][ 49 ]. A variety of stem cells have been used in the treatment of neurological dysfunction.…”