Safety and Effectiveness of BM-MSC vs AT-MSC in the Treatment of SCI Patients.

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that leads to permanent functional and neurological deficits in injured individuals. The limited ability of the Central Nervous System (CNS) to spontaneously regenerate impairs axonal regeneration and functional recovery of the spinal cord. The leading causes are motor-vehicle crashes, sports-associated accidents, falls, and violence-related injuries. Unfortunately, there is still no effective clinical treatment for SCI. In recent years, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine based approaches have been proposed as alternatives for SCI repair/regeneration. Mesnchymal stem cells (MSC) use in SCI showed promising results in several studies. Our aim is to assess and compare the safety and effectiveness of autologous BM-MSC vs autologous AT-MSC in these patients.