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Introduction for Stem Cell–Based Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases

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Stem Cell-based Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1266))

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are a group of neurological diseases caused by the progressive degeneration of neurons and glial cells in the brain and spinal cords. Usually there is a selective loss of specific neuronal cells in a restricted brain area from any neurodegenerative diseases, such as dopamine (DA) neuron death in Parkinson disease (PD) and motor neuron loss in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or a widespread degeneration affecting many types of neurons in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As there is no effective treatment to stop the progression of these neurodegenerative diseases, stem cell–based therapies have provided great potentials for these disorders. Currently transplantation of different stem cells or their derivatives has improved neural function in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases by replacing the lost neural cells, releasing cytokines, modulation of inflammation, and mediating remyelination. With the advance in somatic cell reprogramming to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and directly induced neural stem cells or neurons, pluripotent stem cell can be induced to differentiate to any kind of neural cells and overcome the immune rejection of the allogeneic transplantation. Recent studies have proved the effectiveness of transplanted stem cells in animal studies and some clinical trials on patients with NDs. However, some significant hurdles need to be resolved before these preclinical results can be translated to clinic. In particular, we need to better understand the molecular mechanisms of stem cell transplantation and develop new approaches to increase the directed neural differentiation, migration, survival, and functional connections of transplanted stem cells in the pathological environment of the patient’s central nerve system.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81571241), Department of Science and technology of Shandong Province, China (2017GSF18104), and Basic Research fund from Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2019ZD39). Merit Review Award Number I01 RX002264-01A2 from the United States (U.S.) And Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service and NIH (R21 NS103074-01). We also thank Wei Wang, Nan Zhang, Xianjie Lu, Jing Duan, Na Song, Yan Wang, Li Xu and Yanming Liu in our lab for their technically editing the references and making figures of all the manuscripts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute for Translational Medicine, Shandong University/Affiliated Second Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Fabin Han

  2. The Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Liaocheng University/Liaocheng People’s Hospital, Liaocheng, Shandong, China

    Fabin Han

  3. Veterans Administration San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA

    Paul Lu

  4. Department of Neurosciences, University of California - San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Paul Lu

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  1. Fabin Han
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Correspondence to Fabin Han .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Second Affiliated Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Fabin Han

  2. School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Pengzhe (Paul) Lu

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Han, F., Lu, P. (2020). Introduction for Stem Cell–Based Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases. In: Han, F., Lu, P.(. (eds) Stem Cell-based Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1266. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4370-8_1

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