Cell Transplantation for Repair of the Spinal Cord and Prospects for Generating Region-Specific Exogenic Neuronal Cells

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to irreversible damage to the central nervous system, and there is currently no effective treatment. Cell transplantation, which involves transplanting cells into the injury site, has emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy. This review explores using cell transplantation to treat SCI, focusing on producing regionally specific exogenic spinal cells through in vitro differentiation and blastocyst complementation. Researchers are exploring different cell types for transplantation, with the goal of generating cells with regional and subtype specificity. This involves understanding the developmental transcriptome patterning of spinal cord cells. Exogenic neuronal progenitor cells, created using gene editing and blastocyst complementation, are a potential source of spinal cord cells for transplantation. The review highlights the importance of considering developmental gene expression patterns when generating regionally specific exogenic spinal cells. This approach could improve functional outcomes after transplantation, offering a promising direction for future studies.

• 1
  Transplantation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) can lead to nervous system recovery through mechanisms like remyelination, axonal regeneration, tissue sparing, angiogenesis, and release of neurotrophic factors.
• 2
  Designing regionally relevant neural cells for transplantation may promote further recovery, as regional specificity of ESC-derived neural cells has been shown to be a significant factor in creating a neural relay circuit for functional recovery.
• 3
  Blastocyst complementation is a novel approach in regenerative medicine for generating exogenic organs and cells, offering a promising future direction for SCI treatment by avoiding immunosuppression and chemotherapy-associated toxicity.