A new prospective cell therapy for neonatal brain injury

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a lifelong neurological disorder, mainly caused by hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, hemorrhage, and periventricular leukomalacia occurring at delivery or perinatally. To prevent or reduce the neurogenic disabilities in cerebral palsy, therapies using hypothermia, autologous cord blood infusion, and recently, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been applied. MSCs can be obtained from fetal appendages such as cord blood, umbilical cord, amnion, and placenta. In this chapter, the expected feasibility of such cell therapies for cerebral palsy is discussed.