2) Investigating the ability to use human stem cells to ameliorate the functional deficits associated with spinal cord injuries and promote recovery.

Stem cells are a strong focus of current interest for the potential treatment of many types of CNS disease and injury. While the majority of stem cell lines that have currently been isolated are uncommitted and must be cultured in the presence of molecules that influence their cell fate prior to transplantation, the cells our laboratory works with are neural-committed.

These human central nervous system stem cells (hCNS-SC) have been shown to migrate extensively after grafting into the uninjured fetal and adult brain, and to differentiate into functional neurons, as well as oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes.

These projects make use of NOD-Scid mice, which immunodeficient and therefore exhibit a much attenuated rejection of xenografted (human to mouse) cells. Current studies show that NOD-Scid mice respond to spinal cord contusion injuries similar to background strain, and that transplantation of hCNS-SC into contusion-injured Nod-Scid mice leads to improvements in functional recovery.

Ongoing and planned studies include:

1. Investigating and comparing NOD-Scid and NOD mice for spinal cord injury response characteristics.
2. Investigating the engraftment, survival, and differentation of hCNS-SC neurospheres in spinal cord injured NOD-Scid mice, the ablility of these cells to promote recovery from injury, and the mechanisms by which this recovery takes place.