Treating 'Spinal Cord Injury' with Skin Cells

The research team developed a technology to produce spinal cord cells using skin cells. They then verified the therapeutic effects in animal experiments with spinal cord injuries.

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A technology has been developed to treat the spinal cord, a nerve tissue inside the vertebrae of our body, using cell therapy derived from skin cells. It is expected to open a new path for treating diseases such as spinal cord injuries caused by traffic accidents and industrial accidents, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), where motor neurons are destroyed.

The research team led by Professor Jungbeom Kim of the Department of Life Sciences at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) announced on the 29th that they developed a technology to produce motor neurons that make up the spinal cord by injecting two genetic factors into skin cells, and published the related paper in eLife, the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

Extracting Spinal Cord Paralysis Treatment from Skin Cells

An illustration showing the in vivo characteristics of motor neurons and verification of therapeutic effects using a spinal cord injury animal model.

The research team developed a new cell therapy method to treat spinal cord injuries using skin cells. They succeeded in converting skin cells into motor neurons within the spinal cord through a direct conversion differentiation technique that transforms fully grown adult cells into cells of other tissues.

After injecting the produced cells into spinal cord injury model mice, the team confirmed the recovery of lost motor functions and nerve regeneration within the damaged spinal cord tissue.

Hyuna Lee, the first author and a researcher at UNIST’s Department of Life Sciences, explained, "We successfully created cells with motor neuron functions by sequentially injecting the gene OCT4, which imparts stem cell properties, and the gene LHX3, which imparts motor neuron characteristics, into patient skin cells."

Low Risk of Cancer and Capable of Mass Production

The research team sees this as a new path to treat spinal cord injuries. Among the cells that make up the spinal cord, motor neurons, which play an important role in controlling motor functions, are strong candidates for cell therapy to treat spinal cord injuries.

In particular, motor neurons produced using the method developed by the team have very low risks of immune rejection and cancer development. This is because the cells become autologous motor neurons without passing through the 'pluripotent stem cell stage,' which is one of the cell mutation processes during therapy production. Although research is underway to obtain motor neurons using embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries, the high risk of cancer makes direct application to patients difficult.

Mass production of the therapy is also possible. Since the process passes through an intermediate cell stage capable of self-proliferation, it is possible to obtain as much therapy as needed to treat spinal cord injuries. The existing direct differentiation methods had limitations on the number of cells that could be obtained.

Professor Jungbeom Kim said, "We developed a direct transdifferentiation technology that overcomes the limitations of existing motor neuron production methods," adding, "Combining the produced motor neurons with 'Spinegel,' a therapy that protects spinal cord injuries and helps cells engraft well, could maximize the therapeutic effect." He continued, "Since spinal cord injuries have a high incidence rate due to industrial accidents, we also expect synergistic effects with the specialized public hospital for industrial accidents planned to be established in Ulsan."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.