Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The clinical application of neural stem cells (NSCs) in combination with gene therapy could be used to treat a variety of nervous system hereditary and acquired diseases. However, nervous system diseases are varying. Nerve tissue internal environment of distinctive diseases is also different. All these factors affect the therapeutic effect of NSCs. Moreover, interaction and regulation of a variety of exogenous genes in NSC gene therapy would greatly promote continued regeneration of nerve tissue.

OBJECTIVE: To review application of NSCs in the nervous system diseases.

METHODS: A computer-based online search of Medline database (2000-01/2009-08) and Tongfang database (2000-01/2009-08) was performed for related articles with key words “neural stem cells, gene, nervous system diseases”.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 88 English articles were collected. By reading the title and summary, 20 unrelated articles and 28 repetitive articles were excluded. Finally, 40 were reviewed. NSC as a new-type treatment has been used for somatic cell or transgenic vector, and has achieved a certain effect for cerebrovascular disease, brain damage disease, spinal cord injuries, neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, and genetic metabolic diseases. However, many key issues such as NSC proliferation, differentiation, migration and control mechanism have not been resolved. In addition, the microenvironment in nerve tissues with different diseases also influences NSC therapy.