Stem Cell Transplantation for Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: What Have We Learned from Previous Experience

Abstract

Abstract:Spinal cord injuries represent one of the most devastating illnesses that can affect the human body. Before the advent of the regenerative medicine era, it was regarded as an untreatable condition. Stem cell plasticity and translational medicine research open a new window of hope for this category of patients. Clinical trials of stem cell therapy for spinal cord injuries are now more than a decade old. However, the diversity of clinical trial design, cell type, dose and route of injection, make it extremely difficult to draw decisions from these previous experience. This review tries to collect as much evidence as we can from previous studies in order to suggest paths for future research in this setting.