For the past few decades, spinal cord injury (SCI) has been believed to be an incurable traumatic condition, but with recent developments in stem cell biology, the field of regenerative medicine has gained hopeful momentum in the development of a treatment for this challenging pathology. Among the treatment candidates, transplantation of neural precursor cells has gained remarkable attention as a reasonable therapeutic intervention to replace the damaged central nervous system cells and promote functional recovery. Here, we highlight transplantation therapy techniques using induced pluripotent stem cells to treat SCI and review the recent research giving consideration to future clinical applications.
Keywords: ASIA, American Spinal Injury Association; C-ABC, chondroitinase ABC; CSPGs, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans; CST, corticospinal tract; CiRA, the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application; Clinical application; ESCs, embryonic stem cells; GCV, ganciclovir; GSI, γ-secretase inhibitor; HLA, human leukocyte antigen; HMGB1, high mobility group box-1; HSVtk, herpes simplex virus type I thymidine kinase; Induced pluripotent stem cells; MLR, mixed lymphocyte reaction; NHPs, nonhuman primates; NPCs, neural precursor cells; Neural precursor cells; OPCs, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells; PBMCs, peripheral blood mononuclear cells; SCI, spinal cord injury; SLA, swine leukocyte antigen; Spinal cord injury; drNPCs, directly reprogrammed neural precursor cells; iPSCs, induced pluripotent stem cells.