Cell transplants offer promise for stroke recovery

Cell transplantation is an experimental approach to restore brain function in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. Transplantation also represents a possible strategy to repair the brain after a stroke. Various cell types are under investigation in experimental stroke studies. This review discusses the different graft sources and presents preliminary data on the transplantation of neural progenitor cells after stroke in rats. Following transplantation, progenitor cells proliferated and differentiated into all the different brain cell types, including neurons, and they repopulated the ischemic infarct. These results suggest that cell transplantation may serve as a future restorative therapy for stroke and other neurologic disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, trauma, and multiple sclerosis.