Table 1.

Main variables described in the reviewed clinical trials.

Cell Therapy Approach	Cell Source	Routes of Administration	SCI Level/ASIA Grade	SCI Phase	Interventions Associated	Tools for Evaluating Functioning and Motor/Sensory Improvements	Clinically Significant Outcomes	Statistically Significant Outcomes	References
1 × 106 cells/kg	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Cervical and Thoracic AIS A	Sub-acute, Chronic	No	ASIA, BI, SSEP, MEP, NCV, MRI	Improvement in bladder function, supportive walking and sitting	No	Pal et al., 2009
4 × 108	Autologous AD	Intravenous	Cervical and thoracolumbar AIS A, B	Chronic	No	ASIA, SCIM, VAS, MRI, MEP, SEP	improvement in Self-care	SEP in 3 subjects and ASIA A to C in 1 subject	Ra et al., 2011
7 × 105 to 1.2 × 106	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Thoracic AIS A	Acute and Sub acute	Rehabilitation	ASIA	5 Subjects changed from AIS A to C	No	Karamouzian et al., 2012
25 μL–8 × 105 cells/μL	Autologous BM	Intralesional	Cervical AIS A	Chronic	No	ASIA, RUV, EMG, PSSEP, MRI	Improvement in ASIA score, residual urine volume	ASIA score, residual urine volume	Dai et al., 2013
1 × 108 cells in 5 mL	Autologous BM	Intralesional	Cervical and thoraco lumbar AIS A-, B, and C	Acute, Sub acute and Chronic	No	ASIA, BI, ASHWORT	Benefits in AIS grading and score, bowel, and urinary function, reduction of pain, erectile dysfunction and hypertonia	Not mentioned	Jiang et al., 2013
2 × 106 cells/kg 1–8 monthly injections	Autologous-BM	Intrathecal	Cervical and thoracic AIS A and B	Chronic	Rehabilitation	ASIA, SSEP MRI, FIM	Improvement of neurological and functional measures	Motor and sensory improvement	El-Kheir et al., 2014
2 doses (50 µL to 4 × 105 cells/μL)	Allogenic UC	Intralesional	Thoraco Lumbar AIS A	Chronic	Neurological rehabilitation	ASIA, BI, MMS, MTS	Significant and stable improvement in movement, self-care ability, and muscular tension; residue urine volume	Strength of waist, abdomen, and lower limbs increased, excessive muscle tension decreased, and self-care ability	Cheng et al., 2014
5 × 106 cells/cm3	Autologous BM	Intralesional	Thoraco Lumbar AIS A	Chronic	Rehabilitation	ASIS, SSEP, MRI, VAS, USD	Improvement in urologic function, lower limb sensitivity and motor function, reduction in pain	ASIA sensitivity and motor scores	Mendonça et al., 2014
2 × 107 cells	Autologous BM	Intralesional	Thoraco Lumbar AIS A	Chronic	No	ASIA, SSEP, MRI, SCIM, FIM, USD	Improvement in sexual dysfunction, urinary bladder-filling sensation and sphincter control.	Bowel regularity	Larocca et al., 2016
2 or 3 injections (1.2 × 106/kg)	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Thoracic AIS A	Sub-acute, Chronic	No	ASIA, MRI	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Satti et al., 2016
3–7 injections; 100 × 106 to 230 × 106 cells. additional dose (30 × 106 cells) after 3 months	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Thoracic AIS A	Chronic	Not mentioned	ASIA, FIM, IANR-SCIFRS, BI, Ashworth, Geffner, VAS, MRI, USD	Improvement in sensitivity and sphincter (urinary and bowel) control, infralesional motor activity, decreases in spasms and spasticity, improvement in sexual function	Sphincter control, reduction of neuropathic pain and spasticity	Vaquero, 2016
4 doses 3 × 107 cells day 1, 4, 7 and 10 months (120 × 106 total)	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Cervical and thoraco Lumbar AIS B, C or D	Chronic	Not mentioned	ASIA, FIM, IANR-SCIFRS, BI, Ashworth, Geffner, VAS, MRI, USD	Sensitivity and motor improvement, reduction of pain	Sensitivity and motor improvement	Vaquero et al., 2017
3 doses 100 × 106 (1, 4 e 7 months)	Autologous BM	Intrathecal	Cervical, thoracic and lumbar AIS A, B, C and D	Chronic	Not mentioned	ASIA, FIM, IANR- SCIFRS, BI, Ashworth, Geffner, VAS, MRI, USD	Improvement in sensitivity, in neurogenic bowel and bladder dysfunction, spasms and spasticity, neuropathic pain, and voluntary muscle contraction	Pin prick score assessment, improvements in the syrinx size	Vaquero et al., 2018
(9 × 107 céls)	Autologous AD	Intrathecal	Cervical and thoraco Lumbar AIS A, B, D	Sub-acute, Chronic	Not mentioned	ASIA, MRI, EMG, SSEP, MEP	Improvement in ASIA motor score, Voluntary anal contraction improvement	Not mentioned	Hur et al., 2016
2 doses: 1.6 × 107 + 3.2 × 107	Autologous BM	Intralesional/subdural	Cervical AIS B	Chronic	Rehabilitation	MEP, SEP, MRI	Improvement in motor grade of the upper extremities and ADL; Increases in spinal cord diameter; disappearance of the cavity; SEP and MEP improvements	Not mentioned	Oh et al., 2016
5 × 107	Autologous BM and SC	Intrathecal	Cervical, thoracic and lumbar AIS A	Subacute	Rehabilitation	ASIA, SCIM-III, EMG, NCV, MRI, UDS	Recovery of trunk movement and equilibrium in standing/sitting positions, reduction in the severity of constipation, sensation of the filling bladder, voiding.	Score Sensory (pinprick and light touch); SCIM III total score respiration and sphincter management, mobility, and self-care;	Oraee-Yazdani 2021
5 × 107/kg	Allogenic UC	Subarachnoid	Cervical, thoracic, thoracolumbar ASIA A-D	Chronic		ASIA, IANR-SCIFRS, MRI Penn scale, Geffner, Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction score, RUV	Improvements of pinprick, light touch, motor and sphincter scores. Decrease in muscle spasticity	Improvements in muscle spasm, autonomic system, bladder and bowel functions, RUV and MRI	Yang et al., 2020

AD = adipose; ASIA = American Spinal Injury Association; AIS = America International Spinal Injury Scale; BI = Barthel’s index; BM = bone marrow; EMG = electromyography; FIM = functional independence measure; IANR-SCIFRS = International Association of Neurorestoratology—Spinal Cord Injury Functional Rating Scale; MEP = motor-evoked potentials; MRI = magnetic resonance imaging; MMS = manual muscle strength; MTS = muscle tension scale; NVC = nerve conduction velocity; PSSEP = paraspinal somatosensory evoked potential; RUV = residual urine volume; SCIM = spinal cord independence measure; SSEP = Somato-sensory evoked potentials; UC = umbilical cord; UDS = urodynamic study; VAS = Visual Analog Scale; SC = Schwann cells.