Canine Epidermal Neural Crest Stem Cells: Characterization and Potential as Therapy Candidate for a Large Animal Model of Spinal Cord Injury

The study characterized canine epidermal neural crest stem cells (cEPI-NCSC) from various dog breeds, demonstrating their multipotency and self-renewal abilities. These cells, derived from the hair follicle bulge, expressed neural crest and pluripotency genes and could generate all major neural crest derivatives. The research highlighted the potential of cEPI-NCSC as candidates for cell-based therapies in canine spinal cord injury (SCI), especially in chondrodystrophic dogs, due to their close relationship with spinal cord stem cells. This work laid the foundation for developing new treatments for SCI in dogs and provided a promising large animal model for human SCI research.