Spinal cord injury research triggering an immune system response. Animal studies with injection of bone marrow stem cells have shown improvement in motor function; however not so in a human trial a year post-injury. More trials are underway. Adipose and umbilical tissue stem cells need further study before human trials can be performed, but two Korean studies were begun to investigate adipose cells in SCI patients. Transplantation of tissues such as olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulbs has been shown to produce beneficial effects in spinal cord injured rats. Trials have also begun to show success when olfactory ensheathing cells are transplanted into
Spinal locomotion of human fetuses at 13–14 gestational weeks "creeping and climbing" and producing alternating steps. Onset of stepping in the fetus precedes development and myelination of most descending brain pathways strongly suggesting human spinal cord locomotor CPG and sensory feedback coordination and plasticity. Collectively, studies across the first postnatal year indicates that a locomotor continuum extends from neonatal stepping to the onset of independent walking further suggesting human locomotion is controlled by CPG and sensory input interaction. The injured spinal cord is an “altered” spinal cord. After a SCI, supraspinal and spinal sources of control of movement differ substantially from that