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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Sep 26, 2017; 9(9): 144-151
Published online Sep 26, 2017. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v9.i9.144
Stem cell therapy for nerve injury
Sara Sayad Fathi, Arash Zaminy
Sara Sayad Fathi, Arash Zaminy, Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht 41996-13769, Iran
Arash Zaminy, Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht 41996-13769, Iran
Author contributions: Authors have contributed equally to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Arash Zaminy, PhD, Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht-Tehran Highway, Rasht 41996-13769, Iran. zaminy_a@gums.ac.ir
Telephone: +98-91-24796418 Fax: +98-13-33690036
Received: January 29, 2017
Peer-review started: February 13, 2017
First decision: May 11, 2017
Revised: June 29, 2017
Accepted: July 14, 2017
Article in press: July 17, 2017
Published online: September 26, 2017
Abstract

Peripheral nerve injury has remained a substantial clinical complication with no satisfactory treatment options. Despite the great development in the field of microsurgery, some severe types of neural injuries cannot be treated without causing tension to the injured nerve. Thus current studies have focused on the new approaches for the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries. Stem cells with the ability to differentiate into a variety of cell types have brought a new perspective to this matter. In this review, we will discuss the use of three main sources of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries.

Keywords: Cell-based therapies, Peripheral nerve injury, Stem cells, Mesenchymal stem cells, Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells, Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells

Core tip: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can differentiate into many kinds of cell types including Schwann cells (SCs). Since there are limitations for the use of SCs in nerve injuries, it is necessary to know about substitute cell types. So far different sources of MSCs such as embryonic stem cells, bone marrow MSCs, adipose-derived stem cells, etc. have been studied and the existence of beneficial effects on nerve regeneration after injury has been confirmed. Here in this paper, we have collected the latest updates on the use of MSCs from different sources in peripheral nerve regeneration.