Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating disease and often leads to lifelong disability, muscle spasm, sensory deficits, autonomic disturbances, as well as bowel and bladder incontinence, all of which can cause tremendous troubles to patients but are lack of any effective treatment up to now. SCI is not only a severe healthy problem but also a great social burden. To the best of our knowledge, cell therapy seems to be a promising alternative for the treatment of SCI due to numerous advantages. However, cytotherapy is still in its infancy since there are many disparities and uncertainties regarding subject selection, cellular type, transplantation timing, administration dose and deliver route in clinical trial protocols. Hence, a standardized well-designed clinical study is urgently required for the safe and effective treatment of SCI.~In this study, complete or incomplete cervical, thoracic, and thoracolumbar SCI subjects were recruited to join in a prospective, single-center, single-arm clinical trial. Intervention is four times of subarachnoid administration of allogeneic hUC-MSCs. During the intervention and follow-up periods of this trial, any adverse event was identified rapidly and managed properly. The maximum intensity and relationship of any adverse event with hUC-MSCs administration were identified.The primary efficacy indicator is American spinal injury association (ASIA) total score at the fourth follow-up and SCI Functional Rating Scale of the International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR-SCIFRS) total score at the fourth follow-up. Secondary efficacy indicators are these two indicators at the remaining time points, scores of pin prick, light touch, motor and sphincter, muscle spasticity and spasm, autonomic system, bladder and bowel functions, residual urine volume. Subgroup analysis of primary efficacy indicators was also performed.~In this trial, informed consent forms that had the approval of the institutional review board were obtained from all participants before recruitment. In this clinical study, subarachnoid transplantation of hUC-MSCs was performed a total of four times per subject with the delivery dose of 1×10E6 cells/kg. After the completion of cytotherapy, subject was regularly followed up in the hospital at four time points, determined at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months following the final administration of hUC-MSCs. At each time point of administration (the first, second, third, and fourth transplantation) and follow-up (the first, second, third, and fourth follow-up), safety and efficacy indicators were collected accordingly by two independent assessors.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of repeated intrathecal administrations of allogeneic human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of spinal cord injury.