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(Stroke. 2007;38:809.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Stem Cells and Stroke Recovery: Introduction

Stem Cells and Stroke Recovery

Introduction

David A. Greenberg, MD, PhD

From the Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, Calif

Correspondence to Dr David A. Greenberg, Buck Institute for Age Research, 8001 Redwood Blvd, Novato, CA 94945. E-mail dgreenberg@buckinstitute.org

Key Words: neural stem cells • rehabilitation • stem cells • stroke

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Those patients who are fortunate enough to survive a stroke, leave the hospital, complete acute rehabilitation therapy, and return home enter a chronic phase of the disorder in which improvement may continue for weeks to months. Improvement proceeds via mechanisms that are poorly understood, but its occurrence implies continued plasticity of the nervous system, which might be exploited in treatment.

One approach that could enhance long-term recovery from stroke is based on partial reconstitution of the damaged portion of the nervous system from endogenous or exogenous cellular sources. The brain continues to produce new cells throughout life, and these appear to be capable of taking on normal functions. Moreover, injury of several types, including ischemia, increases the production of new brain cells, which migrate to sites of involvement and may integrate into surviving tissue. This suggests that to at least some extent, the brain is programmed to repair itself through cell replacement. In this session, Harley Kornblum describes the basic biology of neural stem cells and Michael Chopp illustrates how these cells may function in stroke.

But what if the nervous system cannot be stimulated adequately to achieve repair from within? In that case, it is encouraging that neural precursor cells, generated either from embryonic stem cells or partially differentiated cells of neuronal lineage, can be transplanted into the brain and survive, as reported by Gary Steinberg. These cells, too, home to sites of pathology, and may integrate into the host brain. However, as is also true of endogenous neurogenesis, . . . [Full Text of this Article]