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Review
. 2012 Aug 15;7(23):1822-31.
doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.23.009.

Stem cell therapy in neurodegenerative diseases: From principles to practice

Rajalingham Sakthiswary  1 , Azman Ali Raymond  1
Affiliations
Review

Stem cell therapy in neurodegenerative diseases: From principles to practice

Rajalingham Sakthiswary et al. Neural Regen Res. .

Abstract

The lack of curative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases has high economic impact and places huge burden on the society. The contribution of stem cells to cure neurodegenerative diseases has been unraveled and explored extensively over the past few years. Beyond substitution of the lost neurons, stem cells act as immunomodulators and neuroprotectors. A large number of preclinical and a small number of clinical studies have shown beneficial outcomes in this context. In this review, we have summarized the current concepts of stem cell therapy in neurodegenerative diseases and the recent advances in this field, particularly between 2010 and 2012. Further studies should be encouraged to resolve the clinical issues and vague translational findings for maximum optimization of the efficacy of stem cell therapy in neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Huntington's disease; Parkinson's disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; embryonic stem cells; induced pluripotent stem cells; mesenchymal stem cells; neural stem cells; neurodegenerative diseases; stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sources of stem cells in Parkinson's disease (PD). Factors regulating stem cells differentiation into dopaminergic neurons are orthodenticle homeobox 2 (OTX2), orphan nuclear receptor-related factor1 (Nurr1), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), fibroblast growth factor 8 (FGF8), engrailed genes (En1, En2), Wingless (Wnt), (Fox) A2 and neurogenin (Ngn). NSC: Neural stem cells; ESC: embryonic stem cells.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Stem cells evaluated in the recent preclinical studies of Huntington's disease. MSC: Mesenchymal stem cells or mesenchymal stromal cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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