Cell Transplantation, Vol. 24, pp. 589–590, 2015 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright Ó 2015 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
0963-6897/15 $90.00 + .00 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/096368915X687813 E-ISSN 1555-3892 www.cognizantcommunication.com
The Future Potential of Regenerative Medicine for Neural Therapy and Repair: Introduction to the ASNTR Special Issue From the 2014 Meeting At the 21st annual meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) held in Clearwater, April 24–26, 2014, exuberant groups of new and veteran members presented a diverse number of research papers on topical subjects including neurological disease or trauma mechanisms, the basic science of stem cell biology, translational and clinical applications of cell transplantations, and gene therapy, bioengineering, and biotech approaches to understanding and treating different neurological disorders. Arising from this body of enriched data, a number of presentations were chosen to be showcased and are either expanded upon or further enhanced by related recent study developments for this special ASNTR issue of the journal Cell Transplantation. As examples, the influence of a lack of exercise, which is a common occurrence with neurological disorders that lead to bedridden patients, on neurogenesis and the stem cell microenvironment was explored in a proposed study by Watson et al. While increased exercise is known to promote neurogenesis and improve the stem cell niche, it is unclear whether the opposite is true for a lack of exercise and, if so, what can be done to provide benefit. Vardjan et al. discuss how astrocytic vesicle traffic could become a new target for neurological disease therapies. The trafficking of astrocytic vesicles influences the release of gliotransmitters, endolysomes, and membrane transporters, which can contribute to disease pathology. Kinins and various structurally related polypeptides can also contribute to neurogenesis and neuroprotection, and an overview of their potential roles is provided by Negraes et al. Their contributions to ischemic and spinal cord injury as well as possible beneficial effects for recovery are discussed. Kaneko et al. propose that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) may be beneficial in the treatment of metastatic bone cancers. They suggest that therapeutic impact could be derived from repair of tumortriggered damage to the blood–brain barrier. Interestingly, a study by Kološa et al. demonstrates that MSCs can also influence glioblastoma-like cells in that the paracrine functions of MSCs trigger senescence and differentiation of glioblastoma-like cells, which could be beneficial in the treatment of glioblastomas. The coculture of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) with human bone marrow MSCs is demonstrated to improve the stemness of NSCs
according to a study by Haragopal et al. Besides revealing developmental roles of NSC and MSC interaction, the finding can help improve in vitro stemness maintenance and the therapeutic potential of NSCs as either investigative tools or therapeutic agents. On the clinical side, a complete spinal cord injury patient repeatedly treated with autograft bone marrow nucleated cell (BMNC) and multiple MSC transplantations demonstrated some significant functional improvement, providing preliminary evidence of potential clinical benefits from multiple cell transplants. Jarocha et al. are, of course, aware that their study requires repetition in a significantly larger cohort of patients and mechanistic determination before any tangible values of multiple treatments will become clear. For extending an established leading role of ASNTR investigators, a couple of studies have explored aspects of animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD). One study looked at the presence of tyrosine hydroxylasepositive (and hence likely to be dopaminergic) neurons within the striatum of nonhuman primates, which have been reported to increase in number following MPTP lesioning. Bubak et al. investigate how the presence of the cell number changes with regard to disease progression and come to the conclusion that these cells may act to compensate for the depletion of nigrostriatal dopamine. Another study explored whether transplantation of parthogenetically derived NSCs is likely to be safe in both the 6-hydroxydopamine-treated rat and MPTPtreated primate models of PD. Gonzalez et al. conclude that transplantation of these cells does appear to be safe, suggesting that they may also have potential in studying or treating PD-like pathology. An additional four articles from ASNTR attendees and/or of interest to ASNTR attendees are also included in this special issue. Acharya et al. explore using NSCs to restore neuronal plasticity in the hippocampus of cancer patients subjected to radiation therapy. A common side effect of this treatment is cognitive dysfunction, and the investigators have investigated a number of different stem cell types for correcting this impairment. Neural precursor cells from postmortem brain material could be beneficial for the treatment of a number of disorders. Carelli et al. show that these cells can promote functional recovery as well as myelin sparing in an animal model of spinal
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cord injury. Umbilical cord blood has been shown to reduce infarct size in animal models of ischemic stroke. According to a study by Shahaduzzaman et al., some of the neuroprotective effects may be due to activation of the Akt signaling pathway. Finally Torres et al. explore an important biophysical concept with regard to cell transfusion: whether the diameter of the injection cannulae and orientation affects the degree of settling of the cells within the cannulae if the cell suspension is not immediately injected. They determine that regular rotation of the cannulae can ameliorate the settling of the cells in horizontally oriented cannulae. In summary, these articles highlight the variety of hot topics covered by the 21st Annual Meeting of ASNTR, and we look forward to the 22nd ASNTR gathering of its members, new attendees, friends, and famlies. See you all in Clearwater, Florida, April 30–May 2, 2015!
Yang D. Teng President (2013–2014), the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
[email protected] David J. Eve Associate Editor, Cell Transplantation, Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA
