Stem cell therapy for demyelinating disorders

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that attacks mainly young people. It leads to the progressive deterioration of the neurological status. Histopatologically, this disease is characterized by appearance of multiple foci of the demyelination in white matter of the CNS, with various grade of an axonal loss. The current treatment is targeted on moderating the inflammatory process and symptomatic therapy. In spite of all this therapy, the course of the disease often progresses. The tissue of the CNS in mammalians, including humans, is able to provide some degree of spontaneous remyelination. Unfortunatelly the extent of this process is not sufficient for the complete restoration. The support of remyelination by using the cell manipulations is the aim of many experimental studies. Theoretically, it is possible to achieve remyelination either by exogenous induction of remyelination from endogenous sources (precursor cells) or by the real transplantation of myelin-forming cells intrafocally, intracerebroventricularly or into the blood stream. In this work, we present the brief view on the recent state of this topic. We present the list of the cell types, useable for cell transplantations and the summary of the growth factors influencing the behaviour of the oligodendroglial precursors. We are considering the hampers in usage of the cell therapy of demyelinating disorders in clinics.