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Olfactory ensheathing cells — another miracle cure for spinal cord injury?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 2, pages 369–375 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Several recent publications describe remarkably promising effects of transplanting olfactory ensheathing cells as a potential future method to repair human spinal cord injuries. But why were cells from the nose transplanted into the spinal cord? What are olfactory ensheathing cells, and how might they produce these beneficial effects? And more generally, what do we mean by spinal cord injury? To what extent can we compare repair in an animal to repair in a human?

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Figure 1: The specialized glial cells are one of the proposed candidates for an in vivo equivalent of olfactory ensheathing cells19,33,79.
Figure 2: A schematic representation of the glial capsule enclosing an olfactory glomerulus.
Figure 3: Cellular changes associated with the advance of the regenerating cut corticospinal tract axons (black) across lesions (grey) repaired with transplants of olfactory ensheathing cells.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the Medical Research Council the British Neurological Research Trust and the International Spinal Research Trust.

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  1. Head of the Division of Neurobiology at the Norman and Sadie Lee Research Centre, National Institute for Medical Research, Medical Research Council, London, NW7 1AA, UK

    Geoff Raisman

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Raisman, G. Olfactory ensheathing cells — another miracle cure for spinal cord injury?. Nat Rev Neurosci 2, 369–375 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35072576

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