Research Advancement on Injured Peripheral Nerve Regeneration by Stem Cells Combined With Electrical Stimulation

Injury of peripheral nerve is very common in trauma, which easily causes partial or whole damage to peripheral nerves and will further result in function loss or other neurological diseases. With the development of technology, the treatment efficacy of peripheral nerve injury has been improved significantly. However, it is still very difficult to obtain the morpgologic and functional regeneration. Slow rates of nerve regeneration and functional recovery are still the difficulty in clinics. Electrical stimulation is convenient, non-invasive and with few side effects. More and more researchers have paid attention to using stem cells combined with electrical stimulation to repair injured peripheral nerve. In this study, the applications and advancement of using stem cells combined with electrical stimulation in injured peripheral nerve regeneration were comprehensively reviewed. The possible mechanisms of them were further discussed. Particularly, the difficulties of using stem cells combined with electrical stimulation to repair injured peripheral nerve were analyzed. Prospect along this direction was also discussed.