Central nervous system repair and stem cells

Stem cells provide us with a future alternative to more traditional pharmacology for treatment of a wide range of pathology that occurs within the central nervous system (CNS). The ability to not only, minimize neuronal and glial degeneration and loss, but also to repair and regenerate the diseases nervous system is currently the investigational horizon for regenerative medicine. For this, neural stem cells (NSCs) that can be derived either from the CNS itself or from pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs), are promising candidates. Their ability to ameliorate disease symptoms and to improve functional recovery has been demonstrated in various animal models of traumatic and ischemic CNS injury and neurodegeneration involving neuronal and glial cells. Further, the possibility of recruiting endogenous stem cells to compliment stem cell transplantation is providing additional promise to the future of stem cell mediated regenerative medicine.