Table 1.
Cells with therapeutic potential for SCI
| Cells | Abbreviation | Stem cell | Nervous system | Source | Advantages | Disadvantages | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neural stem cells/neural precursor cells | NSCs/NPCs | √ | √ | Central nervous system | High security | Few sources of cells; Difficult to extract; Ethical disputes | Shin et al., 2015; Curtis et al., 2018; Levi et al., 2018 |
| Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells | BMSCs | √ | × | Bone marrow | No problems of ethics and cell origin | Ectopic migration; Potential tumorigenicity | Attar et al., 2011; Karamouzian et al., 2012; Saito et al., 2012; Dai et al., 2013; El-Kheir et al., 2014; Mendonça et al., 2014; Jarocha et al., 2015; Bansal et al., 2016; Chhabra et al., 2016; Satti et al., 2016; Vaquero et al., 2016, 2017, 2018; Xiao et al., 2018 |
| Olfactory ensheathing cells | OECs | × | × | Olfactory mucosa | High security; no problems of ethics and cell origin | Low survival rate | Huang et al., 2006; Hummel et al., 2007; Mackay-Sim et al., 2008; Wu et al., 2012; Rao et al., 2013; Tabakow et al., 2013 |
| Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells | UCMSCs | √ | × | Umbilical cord | No ethical disputes; high safety and effectiveness | No enough evidence | Cheng et al., 2014 |
| Adipose mesenchymal stem cells | ASCs | √ | × | Fat | No enough evidence | No enough evidence | Hur et al., 2016 |
| Hematopoietic stem cells | HSCs | √ | × | Peripheral blood | No enough evidence | No enough evidence | Cristante et al., 2009; Frolov and Bryukhovetskiy, 2012 |
| Human embryonic stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells | AST-OPC1 | √ | √ | Embryonic | No obvious side effects; no pain; no risk of teratoma or tumor formation | Not found | Keirstead et al., 2005; Alsanie et al., 2013; Manley et al., 2017 |
| Macrophages | × | × | Peripheral blood | No enough evidence | No enough evidence | Knoller et al., 2005; Lammertse et al., 2012 | |
| Schwann cells | SCs | × | √ | Nervous system | No enough evidence | No enough evidence | Chen et al., 2014; Anderson et al., 2017 |
At present, most of the cells used for SCI cell transplantation are stem cells, of which BMSCs are the most widely used. NSCs/NPCs have also been used frequently by clinical researchers. UCMSCs, ASCs, HSCs and AST-OPC1 cells have also been investigated for the treatment of SCI. In addition to stem cells, OECs, which have the potential to regenerate, have received considerable attention. BMSCs, SCs and macrophages have also been used in the treatment of SCI. SCI: spinal cord injury.