Treatment of spinal cord injury with mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Background Spinal cord injury (SCI) is the damage to the spinal cord that can lead to temporary or permanent loss of function due to injury to the nerve. The SCI patients are often associated with poor quality of life. Results This review discusses the current status of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy for SCI, criteria to considering for the application of MSC therapy and novel biological therapies that can be applied together with MSCs to enhance its efficacy. Bone marrow-derived MSCs (BMSCs), umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs) and adipose tissue-derived MSCs (ADSCs) have been trialed for the treatment of SCI. Application of MSCs may minimize secondary injury to the spinal cord and protect the neural elements that survived the initial mechanical insult by suppressing the inflammation. Additionally, MSCs have been shown to differentiate into neuron-like cells and stimulate neural stem cell proliferation to rebuild the damaged nerve tissue. Conclusion These characteristics are crucial for the restoration of spinal cord function upon SCI as damaged cord has limited regenerative capacity and it is also something that cannot be achieved by pharmacological and physiotherapy interventions. New biological therapies including stem cell secretome therapy, immunotherapy and scaffolds can be combined with MSC therapy to enhance its therapeutic effects.

Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells for spinal cord injury: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

“…MSCs can be collected from autologous bone marrow, adipose tissue, and allogeneic umbilical cord [ 39 ]. For a long time, MSCs have been reported as low immunogenic or immune-privileged [ 40 ].…”

“…For IV, the transplanted MSCs migrate through the brain spinal cord barrier to the spinal cord under the lesion's chemokines [ 35 ]. Nevertheless, most of the cells transplanted through IV are trapped in the lung, and only a small proportion of transplanted cells migrate to the lesion site, which significantly reduces the plantation rate of stem cells [ 39 ]. Furthermore, Shin et al considered that direct injection of stem cells into cerebrospinal fluid may be the safest and most effective method for cell transplantation in SCI [ 44 ].…”

Long-Term Sevoflurane Exposure Inhibits The Proliferation, Differentiation, and Homing Potential of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

“…MSCs can be extracted, cultured, and amplified from bone marrow, fat, dental pulp, and other tissues in adults and then induced to differentiate into multilineage cells under specific conditions for tissue repair [1,[12][13][14][15]. BMSCs are an important cell source for regenerative medicine because of convenient tissue sampling, easy in vitro amplification and genetic modification, and avoidance of ethical concerns [16][17][18].…”

Therapeutic Potential of Niche-Specific Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Spinal Cord Injury Repair

“…Bone-marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) are the most extensively studied cells both in vitro and in vivo. Currently there are 20 SCI trials registered on the ClinicalTrials.gov database using BM-MSCs, which makes them the most clinically applied of all the MSC types [ 26 ]. The BM niche integrates endocrine, autocrine, and paracrine signalling in order to sustain the stem cell pool [ 27 ].…”

“…Since inflammation is a key secondary pathological mechanism following SCI, it is not surprising that BM-MSCs have shown promising anti-inflammatory effects in animal models of SCI [ 35 , 36 ]. BM-MSCs strongly respond to inflammatory or chemotactic stimuli released from injured tissues, including chemokines and various growth factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and in particular the CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway [ 26 , 27 ]. BM-MSCs can therefore migrate to the lesion site following SCI and enhance antiapoptotic effects.…”