Table 7.
Characteristics of cell candidates for neurological disorders through direct transplantation.
| Cell Type | Stemness | Advantage | Disadvantage | Examples of Targeted Neurological Disorders in Animal Studies | Examples of Targeted Neurological Disorders in Clinical Trials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hESCs | Pluripotent | Unlimited proliferation | Ethical issues; risk of immune rejection, risk of tumor formation | SCI | Lyme disease, MS, SCI, stroke, cerebral palsy |
| hiPSCs | Pluripotent | No ethical issues; applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility | Risk of tumor formation, unpredictable mutagenesis | SCI, stroke | N/A |
| hNSPCs | Multipotent | Neural lineage differentiation; low risk of tumor formation; multiple sources | Comparatively low proliferation | SCI, HD, stroke, PD, AD, ataxia, TBI, ALS | Stroke, ALS, PD, SCI, MS, TBI, cerebral palsy |
| Neurons | Terminal cells | No risk of tumor formation; no unexpected differentiation | Poor survival after transplantation | SCI, ALS, PD, AD | PD, stroke |
| Oligodendrocytes | Terminal cells | No risk of tumor formation; no unexpected differentiation | Poor survival after transplantation | MS, SCI | N/A |
| Astrocytes | Terminal cells | No risk of tumor formation; no unexpected differentiation | Effects highly depend on the subtype of the cells; not much studied | SCI | N/A |
| hMSCs | Multipotent | Applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility; low risk of tumor formation | Limited neural differentiation; effects may be not as suitable as hNSPCs | SCI, PD, stroke, TBI, ALS, ataxia, MS, AD, epilepsy | SCI, PD, stroke, TBI, ALS, ataxia, MS, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, HIE |
| DPSCs | Multipotent | Applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility; low risk of tumor formation | Limited neural differentiation; high heterogeneity; low number of cells from pulp tissue | SCI, HD, ataxia, stroke, PD | N/A |
| SHED | Multipotent | High accessibility; low risk of tumor formation | Limited neural differentiation; high heterogeneity; low number of cells from pulp tissue | SCI, stroke | N/A |
| Muse cells | Pluripotent | Applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility; non-tumorigenicity | Not much studied | SCI, stroke, HIE, ALS | N/A |
| hOECs | Terminal cells | Applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility; non-tumorigenicity; no unexpected differentiation | Hard to purify; poor survival after transplantation; limited migration and phagocytosis; | SCI | SCI, ALS, cerebral palsy |
| hHSCs | Multipotent | Applicable for autologous transplantation; high accessibility | Some risk of serious adverse effects | N/A | MS |
Abbreviation: SCI = spinal cord injury; MS = multiple sclerosis; HD = Huntington’s disease; TBI = traumatic brain injury; PD = Parkinson’s disease; AD = Alzheimer’s disease; ALS = amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; HIE = hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy; N/A = not applicable.