Neurological disease: what cell therapy still cannot do

Suitability depends on the condition, cell type, plans permitted under Korean law, and an individual assessment. The EHL team reviews your health information and explains the available options before confirming a care plan.

In Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke and spinal cord injury, the core damage is loss of neurons and of circuit connectivity. Replacing neurons so that they function within existing circuits is far harder than grafting cells into ordinary tissue. Barriers include glial scarring, axon-growth inhibitors, absent guidance pathways and poor graft survival. For this reason most research targets inflammation control, protection of tissue around the injury and support for neuroplasticity — not building new brain. The clearest comparative exception is AHSCT in aggressive relapsing multiple sclerosis, which does not work by making new neurons but by resetting immunity, and which carries risk high enough to require specialist centres.

Source: PubMed