Spinal Cord Injury Research

KEY FINDING: Fibrin scaffold delivery of MSCs results in longitudinally-aligned layers of cells at the injury site.

KEY FINDING: FGF2 has been shown to have multiple neural-promoting effects on the developing and adult nervous system, including inducing and regulating the proliferation of neural stem cells and precursors.

KEY FINDING: Fgf2 treatment decreases the expression of TNF-α, reduces monocyte/macrophage infiltration, and decreases gliosis at the lesion site after spinal cord injury in mice.

KEY FINDING: LV-ChABC treatment significantly reduced cavitation and enhanced the preservation of spinal neurons and axons at 12 weeks post-injury, compared with control-treated animals.

KEY FINDING: EGFR phosphorylation parallels astrocyte activation, and the EGFR inhibitor PD168393 effectively inhibited scratch-induced reactive astrogliosis and proinflammatory cytokine/mediator secretion of reactive astrocytes in vitro.

KEY FINDING: NGF-induced sprouting of CGRP axons in normal animals resulted in a significant redistribution of synapses and cFos expression into the deeper dorsal horn, leading to severe chronic pain.

KEY FINDING: NSC transplants can fill lesion cavities in the spinal cord after complete transection, but the extent of engraftment varied depending on the transplantation method used.

KEY FINDING: Legumain expression is upregulated in neurons of regenerative nuclei (NMLF and IMRF) during axon regrowth/sprouting after spinal cord injury.

KEY FINDING: Current transplantation therapies are relatively safe and have provided varying degrees of neurological recovery in SCI patients.

KEY FINDING: Axon regeneration was significantly augmented by Schwann cell implantation, while eGFP-MSCs did not support axon growth in the transected spinal cord.