Neural stem cell therapy for neurological diseases: dreams and reality

There is a pressing need for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Hopes have been raised by the prospect of neural stem cell therapy; however, despite intense research activities and media attention, stem cell therapy for neurological disorders is still a distant goal. Effective strategies must be developed to isolate, enrich and propagate homogeneous populations of neural stem cells, and to identify the molecules and mechanisms that are required for their proper integration into the injured brain. This article examines these requirements, discusses the results obtained so far, and considers the steps that need to be taken to provide instruction to donor cells and to elucidate the neurogenic potential of the adult central nervous system environment.