Stem cell biology in traumatic brain injury: effects of injury and strategies for repair.

Approximately 350,000 individuals in the US are affected annually by severe and moderate traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that may result in long-term disability. This rate of injury has produced ~ 3.3 million disabled survivors in the US alone. There is currently no specific treatment available for TBI other than supportive care, but aggressive prehospital resuscitation, rapid triage, and intensive care have reduced mortality rates. With the recent demonstration that neurogenesis occurs in all mammals (including man) throughout adult life, albeit at a low rate, the concept of replacing neurons lost after TBI is now becoming a reality. Experimental rodent models have shown that neurogenesis is accelerated after TBI, especially in juveniles. Two approaches have been followed in these rodent models to test possible therapeutic approaches that could enhance neuronal replacement in humans after TBI. The first has been to define and quantify the phenomenon of de novo hippocampal and cortical neurogenesis after T...