Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly debilitating neurological disease, which still lacks effective treatment strategies, causing significant financial burden and distress to the affected families. Nevertheless, nanotechnology and regenerative medicine strategies holding promise for the development of novel therapies that would reach from bench to bedside to serve the SCI patients. There has al...

The rodent olfactory systems comprise the main olfactory system for the detection of odours and the accessory olfactory system which detects pheromones. In both systems, olfactory axon fascicles are ensheathed by olfactory glia, termed olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), which are crucial for the growth and maintenance of the olfactory nerve. The growth-promoting and phagocytic characteristics ...

Olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) are a specialized type of glia that support the growth of primary olfactory axons from the neuroepithelium in the nasal cavity to the brain. Transplantation of OEG in the injured spinal cord promotes sprouting of injured axons and results in reduced cavity formation, enhanced axonal and tissue sparing, remyelination, and angiogenesis. Gene expression analysis ma...

The ability of adult olfactory bulb ensheathing glia (OB-OEG) to promote histological and functional neural repair has been broadly documented. Pre-clinical studies show that beneficial effects of adult OB-OEG are repeatable in the same type of spinal cord injury initially tested, in other spinal cord and CNS injury models, in different species and after the administration of these cells in dif...

Axons of olfactory receptor cells (ORCs) grow from the olfactory epithelium (OE) to the olfactory bulb (OB), where they travel through the olfactory nerve layer (ONL) of the OB, reorganize extensively, and innervate specific synaptic targets in the glomeruli. Within the ONL a unique population of glial cells, the olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), surround ORC axon fascicles and accompany them...

Numerous obstacles to successful regeneration of injured axons in the adult mammalian spinal cord exist. Consequently, a treatment strategy inducing axonal regeneration and significant functional recovery after spinal cord injury has to overcome these obstacles. The current study attempted to address multiple impediments to regeneration by using a combinatory strategy after complete spinal cord...