Traumatic brain injury, caused by brain trauma or stroke, is a common emergent situation in neurosurgical units across the globe. These traumatic brain injuries not only cause substantial neurological deficits in patients, but often result in substantial economic burden to patients and patients’ families due to long-term treatment and hospitalization. Because of these realities, the need to improve the quality of treatments for brain injury patients is urgent.

Among different therapeutic strategies available today, there are many stem cell therapies being proposed. For example, stem cell transplantation appears a promising therapeutic approach for brain injury patients; exogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) could be implanted into the brain lesion area for brain protection; and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are also a promising cell source for stem cell replacement applied to brain injury. Stem cell allografts not only secrete neurotrophic factors, but also provide cellular interactions between exogenous cells and host neural cells, which could aid neurogenesis and restore neural function. However, though these treatments are promising, there are still many considerations that need to be made regarding their implementation.

Therefore, we are planning to publish a special issue dedicated to “Stem Cell Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury” in the journal of Stem Cells and Development, to discuss relative benefits and considerations that must be addressed with regards to stem cell therapy and traumatic brain injury. We will gladly consider research papers, reviews, perspectives, and commentaries covering traumatic brain injury treatment that employs stem cell therapies (including NSCs, iPS cells, mesenchymal stem cells, etc.) to achieve neural regeneration and repair neural function.

Potential topics for consideration include but are not limited to the following:

• Issues encountered in the application of stem cells therapy for brain injury;
• Animal studies including rodents and primates, and clinical trials regarding stem cells therapy for brain injury;
• In vivo tracking of stem cells in host brain after implantation, particularly using molecular imaging technique, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Neural stem cell and its mechanism for traumatic brain injury or stroke therapy
• Mesenchymal stem cell and its pre-clinical application for traumatic brain injury or stroke
• Induced pluripotent stem cell and its potential applied in traumatic brain injury or stroke

Benefits of publising in the Journal:

• Rapid, high-quality peer review
• Rapid publication and e-pub ahead of print
• Open Access options available
• High visibility reaching researchers in every facet of the Bioelectricity community
• Maximum exposure: accessible in 170 countries worldwide
• Competitive author benefits program