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SUMMARY:Neural stem cell-based therapies and inflammatory neurological syn
 dromes - Dr Stefano Pluchino\, Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair\, Dept of
  Clinical Neurosciences\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20110608T153000Z
DTEND:20110608T163000Z
UID:TALK30582@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Suzy Blows
DESCRIPTION:Since the first transplant of stem cells into the spinal cord 
 of rodents in which an acute demyelinating lesion was induced\, we have wi
 tnessed a spur of experimental cell-based transplantation approaches aimed
  at fostering biological and molecular mechanisms underlying CNS repair. \
 nNew hopes have been recently raised by the encouraging preliminary result
 s obtained by transplanting CNS-derived NPCs and bone marrow mesenchymal/s
 tromal stem cells in rodents with experimental MS. However\, most of the r
 esults with stem cells as therapeutic weapons for MS have consistently cha
 llenged the sole and limited view that stem cells therapeutically work exc
 lusively throughout cell replacement. Indeed\, the transplantation of soma
 tic (non-hematopoietic) stem cells promotes substantial CNS repair via a n
 umber of bystander mechanisms\, mainly exerted by undifferentiated stem ce
 lls releasing in vivo a milieu of tissue-trophic and immune modulatory mol
 ecules\, whose release is likely to be temporally and spatially orchestrat
 ed by specific (micro)environmental cues. These molecules are indeed are p
 leiotropic and redundant in nature as well as ‘constitutively’ secrete
 d by stem cells. In this view\, the therapeutic plasticity of stem cell ca
 n be viewed as the capacity of stem cells to adapt their fate and function
 (s) to specific environmental needs occurring as a result of different pat
 hological conditions.\nWhile further studies are certainly required to ass
 ess the overall safety\, efficacy and in vivo therapeutic plasticity of NP
 Cs\, the great challenge for any future human application of NPC-based pro
 tocols in MS will be to develop more reliable and reproducible approaches 
 optimizing both (tissue) trophic as well as immune regulatory capacities o
 f stem cells for functional and anatomical rescuing of myelin architecture
  in MS patients.\nDetailed review of the most recent data on the highly pe
 culiar immune regulatory stem cell signature will be here provided. \n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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