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Updated: Oct 10, 2026
A Neurosphere Assay to Evaluate Endogenous Neural Stem Cell Activation in a Mouse Model of Minimal Spinal Cord Injury
Published on: September 13, 2018
Single-cell and Spatial Omics Reveal Spinal Cord Injury Microenvironmental Heterogeneity Relevant to Neural
Mingjie Lu1, Jiawei Di1, Mingzhu Deng2
1Department of Spine Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China; Guangdong Provincial Center for Engineering and Technology Research of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
Objective:
Spinal cord injury (SCI) interrupts brain-spinal communication and causes persistent motor, sensory, and autonomic deficits.
Materials And Methods:
We summarize the current clinical and translational evidence on brain-computer interface (BCI)/epidural electrical stimulation (EES)/brain-spinal interface (BSI) for locomotor recovery after traumatic SCI and outline the major patterns of microenvironmental heterogeneity revealed by single-cell and spatial omics. We then link these patterns to clinically relevant axes-acute vs subacute versus chronic phases, complete vs incomplete injury, and peri-lesional vs scar-dominated regions-and discuss how they may influence circuit excitability, plasticity, and responsiveness to neuromodulation.
Results:
BCIs/EESs/BSIs have enabled standing, stepping, or walking-related functions, but clinical outcomes remain highly variable. Emerging single-cell and spatial omics studies indicate that the injured spinal cord is not a uniform lesion but consists of distinct microenvironments that differ across species, anatomical regions, cell states, and stages after injury. We further propose a staged, microenvironment-aware framework linking injury stage, tissue state, and neuromodulation response through testable hypotheses. Representative clinical scenarios are presented as conceptual models rather than as prescriptive algorithms.
Conclusions:
Although these relationships remain hypothesis-generating, integrating neuromodulation with omics-based profiling may provide a foundation for developing more biologically informed and individually adapted strategies for SCI rehabilitation.
