Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) today announced the publication of data showing that oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), when transplanted into a rodent model of cervical spinal cord injury, reduced tissue damage within the lesion and improved recovery of locomotor function. These data provide preclinical proof-of-concept for the use of GRNOPC1, Geron’s hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor product, in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries. Over half of the 11,000 human spinal cord injuries that are sustained in the U.S. annually are in the cervical region.
The study was authored by Geron collaborator Dr. Hans S. Keirstead and colleagues at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California at Irvine. The paper was published online in advance of print in the journal Stem Cells. The abstract of the publication is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122666108/abstract.
Oligodendrocytes have two main functions in the spinal cord; they produce the myelin that wraps around nerve fibers to enable electrical impulse conduction and they produce other molecules (neurotrophic factors) that help to maintain nerve cells. In spinal cord injury oligodendrocytes are lost, resulting in the loss of myelin and death of nerve cells that can cause paralysis below the injury. The present study, conducted in a cervical model of spinal cord injury, adds to previous work in a thoracic model, which has demonstrated that injection of hESC-derived OPCs into the site of injury improved locomotor function with evidence of remyelination of nerve fibers.