Spinal cord injury is a condition that causes paralysis of the motor, sensory, and autonomic nervous system below the injured part due to injury of the spinal cord parenchyma due to trauma such as a traffic accident, and about 5,000 new patients occur every year.No radical cure has been established, and the cumulative number of patients in Japan is currently 10 to 20.Treatment of subacute patients and cumulative chronic patients are both major challenges.

　The subacute phase is a suitable period for cell transplantation before the inflammatory response in the acute phase subsides and scar formation occurs. / Progenitor cells (cells with pluripotency) have been transplanted and their effectiveness in improving motor function has been reported.

　This time, we focused on the activity of nerve trunks / progenitor cells after transplantation and examined them in detail.A gene for an artificial receptor (an artificial receptor created by genetically modifying an in vivo receptor) is introduced into a nerve stem / progenitor cell in advance and transplanted into a subacute stage spinal cord injury mouse.Then, only the transplanted cells were selectively stimulated for a long period of time.As a result, the motor function of the stimulated animal was improved as compared with the conventional transplanted animal.The transplanted cells differentiated into nerve cells and formed synapses with surrounding cells, and it was confirmed that the stimulated animals had increased expression of genes and proteins related to synapses.

　In the future, based on the results of this research, it is expected to develop a treatment method aimed at improving the effect of cell transplantation therapy on spinal cord injury for clinical application.

Paper information:[Cell Reports] Long-term selective stimulation of transplanted neural stem / progenitor cells for spinal cord injury improves locomotor function