Singh, A. et al. Global prevalence and incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury. Clin. Epidemiol. 6, 309–331 (2014).
Lu, P. et al. Long-distance growth and connectivity of neural stem cells after severe spinal cord injury. Cell 150, 1264–1273 (2012).
Bonner, J. F. et al. Grafted neural progenitors integrate and restore synaptic connectivity across the injured spinal cord. J. Neurosci. 31, 4675–4686 (2011).
Lu, P. et al. Long-distance axonal growth from human induced pluripotent stem cells after spinal cord injury. Neuron 83, 789–796 (2015).
Kadoya, K. et al. Spinal cord reconstitution with homologous neural grafts enables robust corticospinal regeneration. Nat. Med. 22, 479–487 (2016).
Rosenzweig, E. S. et al. Restorative effects of human neural stem cell grafts on the primate spinal cord. Nat. Med. 24, 484–490 (2018).
Kumamaru, H. et al. Generation and post-injury integration of human spinal cord neural stem cells. Nat. Methods 15, 723–731 (2018).
Poplawski, G. H. D. et al. Adult rat myelin enhances axonal outgrowth from neural stem cells. Sci. Transl. Med. 10, eaal2563 (2018).
Koffler, J. et al. Biomimetic 3D-printed scaffolds for spinal cord injury repair. Nat. Med. 25, 263–269 (2019).
Ceto, S. et al. Neural stem cell grafts form extensive synaptic networks that integrate with host circuits after spinal cord injury. Cell Stem Cell 27, 430–440 (2020).
Poplawski, G. H. D. et al. Injured adult neurons regress to an embryonic transcriptional growth state. Nature 581, 77–82 (2020).
Salegio, E. A. et al. A unilateral cervical spinal cord contusion injury model in non-human primates (Macaca mulatta). J. Neurotrauma 33, 439–459 (2016).
Obaid, N. et al. The biomechanical implications of neck position in cervical contusion animal models of SCI. Front Neurol. 14, 1152472 (2023).
Rosenzweig, E. S. et al. Extensive spontaneous plasticity of corticospinal projections after primate spinal cord injury. Nat. Neurosci. 13, 1505–1512 (2010).
Fehlings, M. G. & Chhabra, H. S. Recent trends in spinal trauma management and research. J. Clin. Orthop. Trauma. 49, 102351 (2024).
Zheng, B. & Tuszynski, M. H. Regulation of axonal regeneration after mammalian spinal cord injury. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 24, 396–413 (2023).
Robinson, J. & Lu, P. Optimization of trophic support for neural stem cell grafts in sites of spinal cord injury. Exp. Neurol. 291, 87–97 (2017).
Schnell, L. & Schwab, M. E. Axonal regeneration in the rat spinal cord produced by an antibody against myelin-associated neurite growth. Nature 343, 269–272 (1990).
Ruiz-Sauri, A. et al. Glia to neuron ratio in the posterior aspect of the human spinal cord at thoracic segments relevant to spinal cord stimulation. J. Anat. 235, 997–1006 (2019).
Lu, P. et al. Motor axonal regeneration after partial and complete spinal cord transection. J. Neurosci. 32, 8208–8218 (2012).
Álvarez, Z. et al. Bioactive scaffolds with enhanced supramolecular motion promote recovery from spinal cord injury. Science 374, 848–856 (2021).
Anderson, M. A. et al. Required growth facilitators propel axon regeneration across complete spinal cord injury. Nature 561, 396–400 (2018).
Kim, K.-T. et al. Differences in morphometric measures of the uninjured porcine spinal cord and dural sac predict histological and behavioral outcomes after traumatic spinal cord injury. J. Neurotrauma 36, 3005–3017 (2019).
Fawcett, J. W. et al. Guidelines for the conduct of clinical trials for spinal cord injury as developed by the ICCP panel: spontaneous recovery after spinal cord injury and statistical power needed for therapeutic clinical trials. Spinal Cord. 45, 190–205 (2007).
García-Alías, G. et al. Chondroitinase ABC treatment opens a window of opportunity for task-specific rehabilitation. Nat. Neurosci. 12, 1145–1151 (2009).
Lu, P. et al. Prolonged human neural stem cell maturation supports recovery in injured rodent CNS. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 3287–3299 (2017).
Lukovic, D., Stojkovic, M., Moreno-Manzano, V., Bhattacharya, S. S. & Erceg, S. Perspectives and future directions of human pluripotent stem cell-based therapies: lessons from Geron’s clinical trial for spinal cord injury. Stem Cells Dev. 23, 1–4 (2014).
Emery, E. et al. Apoptosis after traumatic human spinal cord injury. J. Neurosurg. 89, 911–920 (1998).
Sugai, K. et al. First-in-human clinical trial of transplantation of iPSC-derived NS/PCs in subacute complete spinal cord injury: Study protocol. Regen. Ther. 18, 321–333 (2021).
Martin, J. R. et al. Long-term clinical and safety outcomes from a single-site phase 1 study of neural stem cell transplantation for chronic thoracic spinal cord injury. Cell Rep. Med. 5, 101841 (2024).
Zhang, D. et al. Spatial transcriptomics and single-nucleus RNA sequencing reveal a transcriptomic atlas of adult human spinal cord. eLife 12, RP92046 (2024).
Lu, P., Jones, L. L., Snyder, E. Y. & Tuszynski, M. H. Neural stem cells constitutively secrete neurotrophic factors and promote extensive host axonal growth after spinal cord injury. Exp. Neurol. 181, 115–129 (2003).
Fessler, R. G. et al. A phase 1/2a dose-escalation study of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in individuals with subacute cervical spinal cord injury. J. Neurosurg. Spine 37, 812–820 (2022).
McKenna, S. L. et al. Ten-year safety of pluripotent stem cell transplantation in acute thoracic spinal cord injury. J. Neurosurg. Spine 37, 321–330 (2022).
Levi, A. D. et al. Clinical outcomes from a multi-center study of human neural stem cell transplantation in chronic cervical spinal cord injury. J. Neurotrauma 36, 891–902 (2019).
Curtis, E. et al. A first-in-human, phase I study of neural stem cell transplantation for chronic spinal cord injury. Cell Stem Cell 22, 941–950 (2018).
Mcmahon, S. S. et al. Effect of cyclosporin A on functional recovery in the spinal cord following contusion injury. J. Anat. 215, 267–279 (2009).
Madsen, J. R. et al. Tacrolimus (FK506) increases neuronal expression of GAP-43 and improves functional recovery after spinal cord injury in rats. Exp. Neurol. 154, 673–683 (1998).
Tsuruta, S. et al. The effects of cyclosporin A and insulin on ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbits. Anesth. Analg. 102, 1722–1727 (2006).
Weaver, L. C. et al. Methylprednisolone causes minimal improvement after spinal cord injury in rats, contrasting with benefits of an anti-integrin treatment. J. Neurotrauma 22, 1375–1387 (2005).
Sharp, K. G., Yee, K. M. & Steward, O. A re-assessment of treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (imatinib) on tissue sparing and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Exp. Neurol. 254, 1–11 (2014).
Rabchevsky, A. G., Fugaccia, I., Sullivan, P. G. & Scheff, S. W. Cyclosporin A treatment following spinal cord injury to the rat: behavioral effects and stereological assessment of tissue sparing. J. Neurotrauma 18, 513–522 (2001).
Lee, J. H. T. et al. Lack of neuroprotective effects of simvastatin and minocycline in a model of cervical spinal cord injury. Exp. Neurol. 225, 219–230 (2010).
Guo, B. et al. Evaluation of benefits and risks of immunosuppressive drugs in biomaterial-based neural progenitor cell transplantation for spinal cord injury repair. Chem. Eng. J. 487, 150404 (2024).
Baloh, R. H. et al. Transplantation of human neural progenitor cells secreting GDNF into the spinal cord of patients with ALS: a phase 1/2a trial. Nat. Med. 28, 1813–1822 (2022).
Rosenzweig, E. S. et al. Extensive spinal decussation and bilateral termination of cervical corticospinal projections in rhesus monkeys. J. Comp. Neurol. 513, 151–163 (2009).
Schmidlin, E. et al. Behavioral assessment of manual dexterity in non-human primates. J. Vis. Exp. 57, 3258 (2011).
Rosenzweig, E. S. et al. Chondroitinase improves anatomical and functional outcomes after primate spinal cord injury. Nat. Neurosci. 22, 1269–1275 (2019).
Nout, Y. S. et al. Animal models of neurologic disorders: a nonhuman primate model of spinal cord injury. Neurotherapeutics 9, 380–392 (2012).






