Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that usually results in sudden and long-lasting locomotor and sensory neuron degeneration below the lesion site. During the last two decades, the search for new therapies has been revolutionized with the improved knowledge of stem cell (SC) biology. SCs therapy offers several attractive strategies for spinal cord repair. The transplantation of SCs promotes remyelination, neurite outgrowth and axonal elongation, and activates resident or transplanted progenitor cells across the lesion cavity. However, optimized growth and differentiation protocols along with reliable safety assays should be established prior to the clinical application of SCs. Additionally, the ideal method of SCs labeling for efficient cell tracking after SCI remains a challenging issue that requires further investigation. This review summarizes the current findings on the SCs-based therapeutic strategies, and compares different SCs labeling approaches for SCI.

Center for Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac 34000 Kragujevac Serbia

Institute of Experimental Medicine Department of Neuroscience Academy of Science of the Czech Republic Videnská 1083 142 20 Prague 4 Czech Republic

National Stem Cell Bank Valencia Node Biomolecular and Bioinformatics Resources Platform PRB2 ISCIII Research Center Principe Felipe c Eduardo Primo Yúfera 3 46012 Valencia Spain

Neuronal and Tissue Regeneration Laboratory Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe E 46012 Valencia Spain

Spebo Medical 16000 Leskovac Serbia

Stem Cell Therapies in Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe E 46012 Valencia Spain

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