Mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy for peripheral nerve injuries: A promise or reality?

Table 2 Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells in peripheral nerve injuries

Cell	Delivery	Models	Cell numbers	Outcome	Notes	Ref.
AT-MSCs (canine)	Perineural	Rat sciatic nerve crush	1 × 106	Improved electrophysiological and motor recovery	Assessment performed for 4 weeks	[83]
AT-MSCs (rat)	Intraperitoneal	Rat sciatic nerve transection and suture repair	2 × 106	Improvement in nerve regeneration and functionality	No difference was observed in compound muscle action potential latency between the saline and MSC groups	[81]
BM-MSCs (rat)	IM and IV	Small gap neurorrhaphy (rat sciatic nerve)	1 × 106	Improvements in the sciatic function index, nerve conduction velocity, and myelin sheath thickness	The IM group showed better results compared with the IV group	[80]
BM-MSCs (rat)	IV and epineural	Rat sciatic nerve transection and suture repair	IV: 1 × 106. Epineural: 5 × 104	Enhancement in the recovery rate of compound muscle action potential amplitudes and axon counts	IV administration showed a more pronounced effect on electromotor recovery, while epineural injection was more effective in increasing fiber counts	[82]
BM-MSCs (rat)	Local injection and IV	Rat sciatic nerve transection/repair and individual nerve transection/repair	5 × 106	Improvements in motor function recovery in both models	The motor function recovery was significantly more pronounced in the individual nerve transection/repair model compared with the sciatic nerve transection/repair model	[85]
BM-MSCs (rat)	Subepineural	Rat sciatic nerve transection and surgical coaptation	5 × 105	Improvements in the sciatic function index	The group treated with MSCs and immunomodulators had better functional recovery than the group treated with MSCs alone. Immunomodulation using LPS and FK506 can improve MSC survival after transplantation	[84]

AT-MSCs: Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells; BM-MSCs: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells; MSCs: Mesenchymal stem cells; IM: Intramuscular; IV: Intravenous; LPS: Lipopolysaccharide.