The prospects of regenerative medicine combined with rehabilitative approaches for chronic spinal cord injury animal models

Regenerative medicine has opened a window for functional recovery in acute-to-subacute phase spinal cord injury (SCI). By contrast, there are still only a few studies have focused on the treatment of the chronically injured spinal cord, in which cell-based regenerative medicine seems less effective. Since the majority of SCI patients are in the chronic phase, representing a major challenge for the clinical application of cell-based regenerative medicine. Although combined therapies for the treatment of chronic SCI have attracted attention of researchers and its potential importance is also widely recognized, there had been very few studies involving rehabilitative treatments to date. In a recent study, we have demonstrated for the first time that treadmill training combined with cell transplantation significantly promotes functional recovery even in chronic SCI, not only in additive but also in synergistic manner. Even though we have succeeded to outline the profiles of recovery secondary to the combination therapy, the mechanism underlying the effects remain unsolved. In this review article, we summarize the present progress and consider the prospect of the cell-based regenerative medicine particularly combined with rehabilitative approaches for chronic SCI animal models.