Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of different MSC transplant approaches.

Routes	Advantages	Disadvantages	Reference
Intraparenchymal	Highest homing rate; low off-brain side effect	Highly invasiveness; additional brain tissue damage	[27, 124]
Intraventricular/intrathecal	Allow for migration to different parts of CNS; high homing rate	Invasiveness	[126]
Intravenous	Low invasiveness; easy operation	Stagnation in peripheral tissue; pulmonary embolism	[128, 129]
Intra-arterial	Low invasiveness; considerable homing rate	Microvascular occlusion	[130, 132]
Intraperitoneal	Low invasiveness; high survival rate	Low homing rate	[116, 134]
Intranasal	Noninvasiveness; easy operation; repeated administration	Lack of clinical trial evidence	[136–138]