Revisiting the unobtrusive role of exogenous stem cells beyond neural circuits replacement in spinal cord injury repair

Stem cell transplantation is explored as a way to fix spinal cord injuries by creating new nerve connections. The study looks at how stem cells help even if they don't survive for long, and without using drugs that suppress the immune system. Human stem cells were put into dogs and monkeys with spinal cord injuries. Researchers watched how the animals recovered movement and checked for nerve growth at the injury site. The study found that stem cells help the body heal itself by reducing inflammation and improving blood flow. This encourages the body's own nerves to regrow, rather than the stem cells directly replacing damaged tissue.

• 1
  hscNPCs remodeled the injury microenvironment shortly after transplantation by reducing inflammation and enhancing angiogenesis, leading to increased endogenous neuronal regeneration.
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  hUMSCs neither survive long-term nor directly reconstruct neural circuits. However, basal functional recovery and endogenous neuronal regeneration were also detected in monkeys with hUMSCs.
• 3
  Exogenous short-term transplantation of stem cells in large animal SCI models does not restore basal function by directly replacing neural circuits throughout the lesion site.