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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

A Neonatal Mouse Spinal Cord Compression Injury Model
Published on: March 27, 2016
Two-Step Generation of Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells From Mouse Fibroblasts for Spinal Cord Injury
Yukyeong Lee1,2, C-Yoon Kim1, Hye Jeong Lee1,2
1Department of Stem Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.
Abstract:
Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) are attracting attention as the ideal cell therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI). Recently, advanced reprogramming and differentiation techniques have made it possible to generate therapeutic cells for treating SCI. In the present study, we used directly-induced neural stem cells (DNSCs) from fibroblasts to establish OPCs (DN-OPCs) capable of proliferation and confirmed their OPC-specific characteristics. Also, we evaluated the effect of transplanted DN-OPCs on SCI in rats. The DN-OPCs exhibited an OPC-specific phenotype and electrophysiological function and could be differentiated into oligodendrocytes. In the SCI model, transplanted DN-OPCs improved behavior recovery, and showed engraftment into the host spinal cord with expression of myelin basic protein. These results suggest that DN-OPCs could be a new source of potentially useful cells for treating SCI.
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