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Neural Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Injury

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Translational Neuroscience

Abstract

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are potentially attractive cell sources for reconstruction of injured spinal cord circuits. Recent studies demonstrate that NSCs can survive grafting into sites of severe spinal cord injury (SCI) and extend very large numbers of axons over substantial distances, forming synapses with host neurons below sites of injury. Reciprocally, host axons regenerate into the stem cell grafts and form synapses. New synaptic relays are thereby formed across the lesion site, improving functional outcomes even after severe SCI. Additional studies are in progress to establish long-term safety and to scale up grafting methods to the larger primate system. Accordingly, this work is on a translational path.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by grants from the Veterans Administration, NIH (NS042291 and EB014986), the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, VA-San Diego Healthcare System, 3350 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, CA, 92161, USA

    Paul Lu PhD

  2. Department of Neurosciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Paul Lu PhD & Ruhel Ahmad PhD

  3. Translational Neuroscience Institute, University of California-San Diego, Veterans Administration Medical Center, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Mark H. Tuszynski MD, PhD

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  1. Paul Lu PhD
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  2. Ruhel Ahmad PhD
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  3. Mark H. Tuszynski MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Paul Lu PhD or Mark H. Tuszynski MD, PhD .

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  1. UnivofCA-SanDiego,VeteransAdmintnMedCntr, Translational Neuroscience Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Mark H. Tuszynski

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Lu, P., Ahmad, R., Tuszynski, M.H. (2016). Neural Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Injury. In: Tuszynski, M. (eds) Translational Neuroscience. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7654-3_16

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