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Review
. 2023 May 1;9(2):195-204.
doi: 10.1002/ibra.12101. eCollection 2023 Summer.

Therapeutic effect of umbilical cord blood cells on spinal cord injury

Jun-Yan Zhang  1 , Z Du Steven  2 , Ke-Hua Liao  3
Affiliations
Review

Therapeutic effect of umbilical cord blood cells on spinal cord injury

Jun-Yan Zhang et al. Ibrain. .

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a nervous system disease characterized by sensory and motor dysfunction, axonal apoptosis, decreased vascular density, and inflammation. At present, surgical treatment, drug treatment, and cell therapy can be used. Surgical treatment can improve motor and independent function scores, and drug treatment can promote the recovery of neurons in the spinal cord, but only improve symptoms. Complete recovery of SCI has not yet been achieved. However, the differentiation of stem cells brings hope for the treatment of SCI. Umbilical cord blood cells (UCBs) are ethically readily available and can repair neuronal damage. However, it is still unclear how they can improve symptoms and repair nerve severity. In this paper, the role of UCBs in the treatment of SCI is described in detail from different aspects such as behavior, morphology, and molecular expression changes, so as to provide new ideas and theoretical directions for future research.

Keywords: cell therapy; cord blood cells; spinal cord injury; therapeutic effect.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Behavioral changes after treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). BBB, Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan; MEPs, motor evoked potentials; UCBs, umbilical cord blood cells. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Morphological changes after treatment of spinal cord injury. PDGFβR, platelet‐derived growth factor β receptor. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 3
Figure 3
Molecular changes after treatment of spinal cord injury. CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; GDNF, glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor; GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein; GSK, glycogen synthase kinase; HSP, heat‐shock protein; IL, interleukin; MAG, myelin‐associated glycoprotein; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; NeuN, neuronal nuclear antigen; NGF, nerve growth‐promoting factor; SYS, synapsin; TNF‐α, tumor necrosis factor‐α; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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