Stem Cell Therapy in Stroke

Note the word promising, not currently used. I  think stem cells are decades away from usefulness. Stem cell pushers are selling hope, not results.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-5804-2_21

• Authors
• Authors and affiliations

• Yaying Song
• Guo-Yuan Yang
• Zhijun ZhangEmail author

• Yaying Song
  • 1
• Guo-Yuan Yang
  • 1
• Zhijun Zhang
  • 1
  Email author

1. 1.Med-X Research Institute and School of Biomedical EngineeringShanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghaiChina

Chapter

First Online: 22 December 2017

• 15 Downloads

Part of the Translational Medicine Research book series (TRAMERE)

Abstract

Stem cell-based treatment for ischemic stroke has shown its effectiveness in animal models and clinical trials. In this chapter, we describe different types and delivery routes of stem cells for therapy, the tracing of stem cells after delivery, and the clinical challenges and strategies in the future. Stem cells derived from various tissues have shown their beneficial role for functional recovery after stroke. Although the mechanism of stem cell-based therapy is not fully understood, it may include the releasing of growth factors, microenvironment regulation, and the preparation of repairing the blood-brain barrier integrity. Clinical applications of stem cell-based therapy are still in infancy. The future of clinical study in the stem cell-based therapy in the stroke field needs to focus on the modification of stem cells or combining different types of stem cells to enhance the therapeutic efficacy, mechanisms of stem cells action, and translation to clinical applications. Stem cell treatment is a promising regenerative therapeutic strategy because it can prevent neuronal cell apoptosis, inhibit pro-inflammatory cell recruitment, secrete multiple neurotropic factors, and promote neural differentiation.