Analysis of Treatments for Severe Spinal Cord Injury; Directly Comparing the Use of Adult Stem Cells from Olfactory Mucosa and Bone Marrow

Abstract

Damage or pressure to the spinal cord leads to loss of motor function, paralysis, and/or sensory loss. Spinal cord injury (SCI) currently has no treatment, because axons in the central nervous system once damaged are unable to reconnect their synapse, regenerate, and grow due to the inhospitable environment. Recent studies explore the use of adult stem cells, bone marrow cells (BMC) and olfactory mucosa (OM), as possible SCI treatments.

This is an exploratory study that directly compares the use of BMC and OM as SCI treatments and the possibility of combinational treatments. OM, used alone, would have greater improvement in mobility than BMC because OM works directly at the injury site The combinational treatment of OM and BMC would have the most improvement in locomotive behavior because each type of adult stem cell works by a different mechanism to restore the injured spinal cord