Figure 3.

Approaches, goals and targets for modulating endogenous NSCs following spinal cord injury. Towards the goal of enhancing NSC activation to promote self-repair of the injured spinal cord, approaches encompass targeting the response of parenchymal cells to release NSC modulating factors (e.g., glia-derived factors, myelin basic protein (MBP), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3)); modifying extracellular matrix components to regulate cell adhesion (for example),and/or administering pharmaceuticals (e.g., metformin and cyclosporin A (CsA)) that modify cell behavior through proliferation, survival, migration and differentiation. Novel therapeutics such as applied electric fields can also impact NSC behavior and is another approach that shows promise and warrants further investigation.