Analysis of possible mechanisms behind functional recovery following neural progenitor cell transplantation into spinal cord injury.

Long-term survival and integration of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) transplanted following spinal cord injury (SCI) have been observed. However, questions concerning the differentiation choice of NPCs, their mechanism of action and their contribution to functional recovery remains unanswered. Therefore, we investigated global transcriptomal changes in transplanted NPCs transplanted into SCI. We found that NPCs transplanted into SCI up-regulate genes related to nerve cell function and signaling and differentiation, and down-regulate genes related to cytokine signaling and apoptosis.