Stem cell application in neurorehabilitation
Several diseases of the brain and spinal cord are associated with substantial neural cell death and/or disruption of neural networks. A�variety of therapeutic strategies to rescue these systems has been proposed along with agents to induce functional plasticity within the remaining central nervous system (CNS) structures. In the case of injury or neurodegenerative disease these approaches have only met with limited success, indicating the need for novel approaches to treat diseases of the adult CNS. Recently, the idea of recruiting stem cells to replace lost structures within the adult brain or spinal cord has gained significant attention and opened up novel therapeutic avenues. Here, recent advances in our understanding of endogenous stem cells are reviewed and new clinical and preclinical data suggesting that stem cell-based therapies hold great promise as a future treatment option in a number of diseases disrupting the proper function of the adult CNS are summarized.