Combining neural progenitor cell transplant and rehabilitation for enhanced recovery after cervical spinal cord injury

The combination of neural progenitor cell (NPC) grafting and rehabilitation training significantly improves skilled forelimb functional recovery after low cervical bilateral contusive injury. Rehabilitation training may drive these new circuits to reconnect to their appropriate targets, thus forming functional relays to reconnect the spinal cord and brain through appropriate targets. NPCs are progenitor cells of the central nervous system that can self-renew for limited times and differentiate into neurons and glia. The differentiated neurons and glia can both replace lost neurons and glia after injury but can also serve as relay neurons to reconnect the disrupted axons.

• 1
  NPC transplants are a potential pro-regenerative therapy that elicits a robust host axonal regeneration and extensive axonal extension from transplant-derived neurons.
• 2
  Rehabilitation training significantly enhances the density of regenerated CST axons in the lesion site, enabling functional connections between host CST axons and graft-derived neurons.
• 3
  Functional outcomes improved only in animals that received both NPC grafts and rehabilitation. Neither treatment alone significantly improved motor outcomes.