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About the Authors:
Stephen J. A. Davies
Affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
Chung-Hsuan Shih
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Genetics, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America
Mark Noble
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Genetics, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America
Margot Mayer-Proschel
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Genetics, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America
Jeannette E. Davies
Contributed equally to this work with: Jeannette E. Davies, Christoph Proschel
* E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
Christoph Proschel
Contributed equally to this work with: Jeannette E. Davies, Christoph Proschel
* E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Genetics, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America
Introduction
The recognition that astrocyte dysfunction may play an important role in a wide range of neurological disorders raises the question of whether astrocyte transplantation could be of therapeutic value in treating the injured or diseased human central nervous system (CNS). For example, it has long been known that astrocytes within glial scar tissue contribute to the failure of axon regeneration across sites of traumatic brain or spinal cord injury [1]–[6]. A failure of normal astrocyte generation by CNS precursor cells has been discovered to be a consequence of the mutations that cause Vanishing White Matter leukodystrophy [7], and dysfunction of astrocytes has also been suggested to be of importance in models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [8], forebrain ischemic injury [9], epileptic seizures [10], Huntington's disease [11], tuberous sclerosis [12] and Rett syndrome [13]. We therefore have proposed that enhancing astrocyte function through transplantation of specific subtypes of astrocytes derived from glial precursors will promote repair and functional recovery after CNS injury [14].
There are a number of challenges inherent in the development of astrocyte-based treatments for human disease. One of the most important of these is the question of whether all astrocytes are equivalent in their...