Jin Young Hong and colleagues generated self-renewable induced NSCs from somatic fibroblasts and engrafted them in a rat model of SCI. The engrafted cells were able to restore axonal regeneration resulting in recovery of motor, sensory and autonomic functions (Hong et al., 2014). In another study, Pajer et al. performed avulsion of the lumbar 4 (L4) ventral root in rats, an injury that is known to induce the death of majority of affected motor neurons. Afterwards, they transplanted murine iPSCs into the injured spinal cord segment. Their observation included improved re-innervation by the host motor neurons as compared to controls with no iPSC transplantation procedure. It also seemed that the observed morphological re-innervation resulted in functional recovery as the grafted rats exhibited more motor movement units in their re-innervated limb than controls. This study also established that the grafting of iPSCs downregulated astroglial activation in the injured site and was able to conclude that the observed motor neuron survival and regeneration came as a result of neurotrophic and cytokine modulatory mechanisms (Pajer et al., 2015). Furthermore, a study performed on
