Remyelination of the injured spinal cord.
Contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) can result in necrosis of the spinal cord, but often long white matter tracts outside of the central necrotic core are demyelinated. One experimental strategy to improve functional outcome following SCI is to transplant myelin-forming cells to remyelinate these axons and improve conduction. This review focuses on transplantation studies using olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) to improve functional outcome in experimental models of SCI and demyelination. The biology of the OEC, and recent experimental research and clinical studies using OECs as a potential cell therapy candidate are discussed.
Sasaki
Masanori
M
Department of Neurology and Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA, and Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, Chongqing, P.R. China.
Li
Bingcang
B
Lankford
Karen L
KL
Radtke
Christine
C
Kocsis
Jeffery D
JD
D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000473:pathology; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*