Stroke is a serious
cerebrovascular disease that causes high mortality and persistent disability in adults worldwide.
Stroke is also an enormous public health problem and a heavy public financial burden in the United States. Treatment for
stroke is very limited.
Thrombolytic therapy by
tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is the only approved treatment for
acute stroke, and no effective treatment is available for chronic
stroke. Developing new therapeutic strategies, therefore, is a critical need for
stroke treatment. This article summarizes the discovery of new routes of treatment for acute and chronic
stroke using two hematopoietic
growth factors,
stem cell factor (SCF) and
granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (
G-CSF). In a study of
acute stroke, SCF and
G-CSF alone or in combination displays
neuroprotective effects in an animal model of
stroke. SCF appears to be the optimal treatment for
acute stroke as the functional outcome is superior to
G-CSF alone or in combination (SCF+G-CSF); however, SCF+G-CSF does show better functional recovery than
G-CSF. In a chronic
stroke study, the
therapeutic effects of SCF and
G-CSF alone or in combination appear differently as compared with their effects on the
acute stroke. SCF+G-CSF induces stable and long-lasting functional improvement; SCF alone also improves functional outcome but its effectiveness is less than SCF+G-CSF, whereas
G-CSF shows no
therapeutic effects. Although the mechanism by which SCF+G-CSF repairs the brain in chronic
stroke remains poorly understood, our recent findings suggest that the SCF+G-CSF-induced functional improvement in chronic
stroke is associated with a contribution to increasing angiogenesis and neurogenesis through bone marrow-derived cells and the direct effects on stimulating neurons to form new neuronal networks. These findings would assist in developing new treatment for
stroke. The article presents some promising patents on role of
stem cell factor and
granulocyte-colony stimulating factor in treatment of
stroke.