Cell therapy for stroke and spinal cord injury in clinical trials

Abstract 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.