Cell Therapy in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are progressive neurological disorders highly linked to brain injuries. Selective neuronal loss in particular regions of brain causes different types of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, etc. The present study was planned to explore the possible therapeutic role of intravenously transplanted mesenchymal stem cells either derived from bone marrow or adipose tissue in management of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases in experimental model. Moreover, this study was extended to compare between the roles of stem cells therapy with the conventional therapies of these neurodegenerative diseases. The results of the current work shed light on the promising therapeutic role of mesenchymal stem cells in management of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases through their immunomodulatory properties, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects as well as their neurotrophic and neurogenic potentials. Noteworthy, the achieved improvement in the studied markers by the single infusion with MSCs was similar to or better sometimes than the reference drugs which were administered daily.