Improved Locomotor Recovery in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury by BioLuminescent-OptoGenetic (BL-OG) Stimulation with an Enhanced Luminopsin.

Irrespective of the many strategies focused on dealing with spinal cord injury (SCI), there is still no way to restore motor function efficiently or an adequate regenerative therapy. One promising method that could potentially prove highly beneficial for rehabilitation in patients is to re-engage specific neuronal populations of the spinal cord following SCI. Targeted activation may maintain and strengthen existing neuronal connections and/or facilitate the reorganization and development of new connections.

Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells that overexpress NT-3 produce motor improvements without axonal regeneration following complete spinal cord transections in rats.

Transplanting stem cells engineered to overexpress trophic factors can improve motor abilities and facilitate axon regeneration following spinal cord injury. This study compared several transplantation paradigms using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that overexpress the multi-neurotrophin, NT-3/D15A (NT-3-MSCs), to determine if different grafting strategies can elicit improved axon regeneration and/or behavioral outcomes following a complete T9 spinal transection. At one week post-transection, NT-3-MSCs were transplanted above, and at several locations below, the lesion site.

Co-transplantation of mesenchymal and neural stem cells and overexpressing stromal-derived factor-1 for treating spinal cord injury.

Genetic engineering of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and neuronal stem cells (NSCs) has been used to treat spinal cord injuries (SCI). As a mechanism of therapy, MSCs secrete high amounts of trophic factors, while NSCs can differentiate into neuronal lineages and aid in tissue replacement. Additionally, the forced overexpression of secreted proteins can enhance the secretome of transplanted cells, which can increase therapeutic efficacy.