Cell therapy for stroke and spinal cord injury in clinical trials

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Brain injury describes a variety of injuries to the tissues and blood vessels in the head. It can be external such as in road accident or physical assaults or internal such as a stroke. Regardless, they are largely incurable with a long route to recovery with symptoms-relieving medications and rehabilitation. As such, many therapies were explored including cell therapy. However, not all were evidence based and in many instances banking of patients' desperation, many treatments were done without any evidence from clinical trials. Here, we reviewed clinical trials on clinicaltrials.gov for stroke and spinal cord injury where there are cellular therapies transplanting neural, mesenchymal, and haemopoietic cells. We present and discuss 40 trials involving cell therapies for stroke and 32 for spinal cord injuries that are either completed or active. Although some trials began as long as 20 years ago and have shown encouraging improvements in various scale scores for both stroke and spinal cord injury, cell transplantation for brain injuries remains an evolving field that requires further research before it can be established as a standard treatment.

Evidence level

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.