Astrocytes are specialized and most numerous glial cell type in the central nervous system and play important roles in physiology. Astrocytes are also critically involved in many neural disor-ders including focal ischemic stroke, a leading cause of brain injury and human death. One of the prominent pathological features of focal ischemic stroke is reactive astrogliosis and glial scar for-mation associated with morphological changes and proliferation. This review paper discusses the recent advances in spatial and temporal dynamics of morphology and proliferation of reactive astrocytes after ischemic stroke based on results from experimental animal studies. As reactive astrocytes exhibit stem cell-like properties, knowledge of dynamics of reactive astrocytes and glial scar formation will provide important insights for astrocyte-based cell therapy in stroke.

Injuries to peripheral nerves are common and cause life-changing problems for patients along-side high social and health care costs for society. Current clinical treatment of peripheral nerve injuries predominantly relies on sacriifcing a section of nerve from elsewhere in the body to pro-vide a graft at the injury site. Much work has been done to develop a bioengineered nerve graft, precluding sacriifce of a functional nerve. Stem cells are prime candidates as accelerators of re-generation in these nerve grafts. This review examines the potential of adipose-derived stem cells to improve nerve repair assisted by bioengineered nerve grafts.

After a radiological or nuclear event, acute radiation syndrome (ARS) will present complex medical challenges that could involve the treatment of hundreds to thousands of patients. Current medical doctrine is based on limited clinical data and remains inadequate. Efforts to develop medical innovations that address ARS complications are unlikely to be generated by the industry because of market uncertainties specific to this type of injury. A prospective strategy could be the integration of cellular therapy to meet the medical demands of ARS. The most clinically advanced cellular therapy to date is the administration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Results of currently published investigations describing MSC safety and efficacy in a variety of injury and disease models demonstrate the unique qualities of this reparative cell population in adapting to the specific requirements of the damaged tissue in which the cells integrate. This report puts forward a rationale for the further evaluation of MSC therapy to address the current unmet medical needs of ARS. We propose that the exploration of this novel therapy for the treatment of the multivariate complications of ARS could be of invaluable benefit to military medicine.