Spinal Cord Injuries- Can Stem Cells Possible Help?

 As a volunteer at Craig Hospital in the rehabilitation center, I have met a number of paraplegics who work hard to stay mobile and are striving to maintain mobility in their lower extremities. Only about 0.4% of the 17,000 new cases of a spinal cord injury each year are able to fully recovery (Shende & Subedi, 2017). It would be amazing to see new treatments develop that might help some of these patients possible regain voluntary movement and there have been a number of research done with stem cells that might be a viable treatment.  

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) are some of the most life-changing injuries. An SCI can come from a number of accidents that will cause a lesion in the spine and lead to loss of sensory and motor neurons (Libro, Bramanti, & Mazzon, 2017). For most SCI, there is a traumatic event, a genetic disease, or a degeneration of the nerve cells, that causes the dysfunction of the spinal cord. The spinal cord is then unable to send nerve signals from the brain to the body and it can result in paralysis.

In one experiment, Dr. Levenberg, engineered human stem cells that allowed paraplegic rats to walk. To begin, they harvested stem cells from the membrane lining in the mouth. To do this, the research team built a scaffold that allowed the stem cells to attach and differentiate into supportive cells that can serve to stabilize and neurons in the rat’s spinal cord. By the end of the differentiation the stem cells formed a complete spinal cord transection, which they inserted into the rats. After the implantation, 42% of the rats showed the ability to support their weight and walk, then 75% of the rats showed sensory improvement (Levenberg et al, 2006). This study is a far way from helping humans, but help can give hope to future potential treatments for SCIs.

Reference:

Levenberg, S., Finegold, B., & Stix, G. (2006). Growing Replacement Parts. Scientific American, 295(6), 56.

Libro, R., Bramanti, P., & Mazzon, E. (2017). The combined strategy of mesenchymal stem cells and tissue-engineered scaffolds for spinal cord injury regeneration (Review). Experimental & Therapeutic Medicine, 14(4), 3355-3368. doi:10.3892/etm.2017.4939

Shende, P., & Subedi, M. (2017). Pathophysiology, mechanisms and applications of mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of spinal cord injury. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 91693-706. doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2017.04.126