Current bone marrow stromal cell therapies for adults with complete spinal cord injuries
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Abstract
Traumatic spinal cord injuries are a common occurrence throughout the world and have an enonnous physical, emotional, and economic impact on young Americans and their families. Despite significant improvements made in recombinant DNA technology and an increase in the understanding of the underlying pathology, spinal cord injury repair is still in the early stages of development. Improved therapies are in high demand and there is a window thereafter for therapeutic intervention.
To date, most of the curative clinical therapies have been molecular in focus, but they have been met with limited success. For a patient to respond to a molecular therapy the agent in question would have to simultaneously promote neuronal survival, regenerate new axons, and remyelinate damaged axons. Molecular therapies fail because there are thousands of known and unknown molecules preventing recovery and the current biochemical picture is but a fraction of what is occurring in an injured spinal cord. Researchers know that molecular techniques alone will not provide a cure for spinal cord injury. [TRUNCATED]
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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University
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