title: Adult stem cell as new advanced therapy for experimental neuropathic pain treatment.
abstract: Neuropathic pain (NP) is a highly invalidating disease resulting as consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system. All the pharmacological treatments today in use give a long lasting pain relief only in a limited percentage of patients before pain reappears making NP an incurable disease. New approaches are therefore needed and research is testing stem cell usage. Several papers have been written on experimental neuropathic pain treatment using stem cells of different origin and species to treat experimental NP. The original idea was based on the capacity of stem cell to offer a totipotent cellular source for replacing injured neural cells and for delivering trophic factors to lesion site; soon the researchers agreed that the capacity of stem cells to contrast NP was not dependent upon their regenerative effect but was mostly linked to a bidirectional interaction between the stem cell and damaged microenvironment resident cells. In this paper we review the preclinical studies produced in the last years assessing the effects induced by several stem cells in different models of neuropathic pain. The overall positive results obtained on pain remission by using stem cells that are safe, of easy isolation, and which may allow an autologous transplant in patients may be encouraging for moving from bench to bedside, although there are several issues that still need to be solved.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Franchi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Giada
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amodeo
authors.affiliation: I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, 20161 Milano, Italy ; Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Chirurgiche ed Odontoiatriche, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niada
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy ; Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Opera di San Pio da Pietralcina, 71013 San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vescovi
authors.affiliation: I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, 20161 Milano, Italy ; Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Chirurgiche ed Odontoiatriche, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Teresa
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Brini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto Emilio
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Panerai
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi Milano, 20129 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sacerdote
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000628:therapy*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation