Articles

Neural stem cells continue to show promise in spinal cord injury treatment

A team in Japan has produced a substantial degree of recovery in paralyzed mice by transplanting neural stem cells (NSCs) into the spinal cord and then administering a commonly used drug in humans, Valproic acid (marketed as Depakote). When NSCs are left to their own devices they primarily will differentiate into glial cells instead of neurons. The work described below demonstrates that Valproic acid can drive differentiation of NSCs to neurons while they are developing in vivo. This in itself is a significant finding, but they also showed that the new neurons could produce recovery of function by forming relays with existing native neurons. This occurred in the absence of regeneration of the endogenous neurons. Since both NSCs and Valproic acid have been used in humans previously this combination may present an opportunity for human treatment.

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