The Therapeutic Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells After Stroke: Evidence from Rodent Models

Abstract

Stroke is the second most common cause of death and the leading cause of disability in the world. About 30% of the people that are affected by stroke die within a year; 25% of the patients that survive stroke remain in need of care after a year. Therefore, stroke is a major burden for health care costs. The most common subtype is ischemic stroke. This type is characterized by a reduced and insufficient blood supply to a certain part of the brain. Despite the high prevalence of stroke, the currently used therapeutic interventions are limited. No therapies that aim to restore damaged neuronal tissue or to promote recovery are available nowadays. Transplantation of stem cell-derived cells has been investigated as a potential regenerative and protective treatment. Embryonic stem cell (ESC)-based cell therapy in rodent models of stroke has been shown to improve functional outcome. However, the clinical use of ESCs still raises ethical questions and implantation of ESC-derived cells requires continuous immunosuppression. The groundbreaking detection of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has provided a most promising alternative. This mini-review summarizes current literature in which the potential use of iPSC-derived cells has been tested in rodent models of stroke. iPSC-based cell therapy has been demonstrated to improve motor function, decrease stroke volume, promote neurogenesis and angiogenesis and to exert immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory effects in the brain of stroke-affected rodents.

Potential of Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Ischemic Stroke

“…They can be generated in a patient-matched manner, implicating that each individual could have their own pluripotent stem cell line. Finally, iPSCs can be used in personalized drug discovery and to understand and deepen the patient-specific basis of disease ( 7 – 10 ).…”

Regenerative neurology: meeting the need of patients with disability after stroke

“…12 The findings of preclinical studies in stroke models have provided encouraging evidence for potential for neuroregeneration and useful insights into potential applicability in the future. [13][14][15] Chronic stroke and local injection Last year was an exciting one for stem cell therapy in stroke patients. There were two high impact publications documenting early phase clinical studies with two different multipotent stem cells, SB623 and CTX0E03.…”

The Beneficial Potential of Genetically Modified Stem Cells in the Treatment of Stroke: a Review

“…Moreover, other types of stem cells, such as bone marrow mononuclear cells [27,28], induced pluripotent stem cells [29][30][31][32], dental pulp stem cells [33,34], menstrual blood-derived stem cells [35,36], and epidermal neural crest stem cells [37] have been evaluated as a potential treatment of stroke. The release of growth factors by stem cells is considered as one of the most important therapeutic aspects of cell-based therapy [38].…”