title: Therapeutical Strategies for Spinal Cord Injury and a Promising Autologous Astrocyte-Based Therapy Using Efficient Reprogramming Techniques.
abstract: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic event resulting in disturbances to normal sensory, motor, or autonomic functions, which ultimately impacts a patient's physical, psychological, and social well-being. Until now, no available therapy for SCI can effectively slow down or halt the disease progression. Compared to traditional treatments, e.g., medication, surgery, and functional electrical stimulation, stem cell replacement therapy shows high potential for repair and functional plasticity. Thus, stem cell therapy may provide a promising strategy in curative treatment of SCI, specifically when considering the requirement of neuron replenishment in the spinal cord after distinct acute injuries. However, the therapeutic application of neural stem cells (NSCs) still faces enormous challenges, such as ethical issues, possible inflammatory reactions, graft rejection, and tumor formation. Therefore, it is of vital interest to identify more suitable sources of cells with stem cell potential, which might potentially be harnessed for local neural repair. Due to abovementioned possible drawbacks, these cells should be autologous. Reprogramming of astrocytes to generate the desired neuronal cell types would open the door to autologous cell transplantation and treatment of SCI without possible severe side effects. In this paper, we review the relevant therapeutic strategies for SCI, and conversion of astrocyte into NSCs, suggesting this procedure as a possible treatment option.
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China. yanghao.71_99@yahoo.com.|Clinic Stem Cell Research Center, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200217, China. yanghao.71_99@yahoo.com.
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Yang
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China.
authors: Cui-Cui
authors: CC
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Lanzhou General Hospital of Lanzhou Military Area Command of Chinese PLA, Lanzhou, 730050, China.
authors: Chun-Yu
authors: CY
authors: Wang
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China.
authors: Qian
authors: Q
authors: Zhang
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China.
authors: Jiang
authors: J
authors: An
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China.
authors: Lingling
authors: L
authors: Zhang
authors: Translational Medicine Center, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China. haodingjun@126.com.|Department of Spine Surgery, Hong Hui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Shaanxi, 710054, China. haodingjun@126.com.
authors: Ding-Jun
authors: DJ
authors: Hao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D065150:Cellular Reprogramming; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
keywords: Astrocyte; Cell reprogramming; MicroRNA; Neural regeneration; Spinal cord injury; Transcription factor