Stem cell therapy in stroke: Mechanism and progress in clinical research / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Stroke is the leading cause of death and major cause of diability in China, but with few effective therapies. As few as 3%-5% of ischemic stroke patients have access to drug treatment with tissue plasminogen activators, and no drug treatment is available to patients of hemorrhagic stroke. Stem cell therapy has been proposed as a potential regenerative strategy for stroke patients. In the future, stroke stem cell research can be combined with genetic editing, 3D and other emerging technologies or drug treatments, to promote the development of stroke stem cell regenerative medicine. Based on the guidelines for stem cell research of stroke, this review elaborates on the action mechanism and clinical reasearch of stem cells for the treatment of stroke, including neural stem cells (human neural precursor cell line NT2/D1 and human immortalized neural stem cell line CTX) and adult stem cells (bone marrow mononuclear cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and multipotent adult progenitor cells), while disclosing the limitations of stem cell therapy. In the future, stem cell research in stroke can be combined with gene editing technology and drug treatment to improve the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapy in the hope of promoting the research of regenerative medicine for stroke.