Intracerebral Transplantation of Autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improves Functional Recovery in a Rat Model of Chronic Ischemic Stroke.

While treatments exist for the acute phase of stroke, there are limited options for patients with chronic infarcts and long-term disability. Allogenic mesenchymal stem cells (alloMSCs) show promise for the treatment of stroke soon after ischemic injury. There is, however, no information on the use of autologous MSCs (autoMSCs), delivered intracerebrally in rats with a chronic infarct.

Facial grimace testing as an assay of neuropathic pain-related behavior in a mouse model of cervical spinal cord injury.

A major portion of individuals affected by traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) experience one or more types of chronic neuropathic pain (NP), which is often intractable to currently available treatments. The availability of reliable behavioral assays in pre-clinical models of SCI-induced NP is therefore critical to assess the efficacy of new potential therapies. Commonly used assays to evaluate NP-related behavior in rodents, such as Hargreaves thermal and von Frey mechanical testing, rely on the withdrawal response to an evoked stimulus.