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 cord injury research injured spinal cord will replace killed neurons and oligodendrocytes and secrete factors that support growth. However they may fail to differentiate into neurons when transplanted, either remaining undifferentiated or becoming glia. A phase I/II clinical trials implanting NSCs into humans with SCI began in 2011 and ended in June 2015. Mesenchymal stem cells do not need to come from fetuses, so avoid difficulties around ethics; they come from tissues including bone marrow, adipose tissue, the umbilical cord. They are thought to be pluripotent. Unlike other types of stem cells, mesenchymal cells do not present the threat of tumor formation or