Regeneration and Remodeling after Brain Injury: Implications for Stem Cell Therapy

Edited by:

Hailiang Tang, MD, Fudan University, China
Francisco Silva, BS, BioRestorative Therapies, United States

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 25 June 2025

Journal of Translational Medicine is calling for submissions to our Collection on Regeneration and Remodeling after Brain Injury: Implications for Stem Cell Therapy.

The collection welcomes all original and review articles on topics such as:
• Stem cell therapy for brain repair after brain injury/damage, including brain trauma or stroke;
• Underlying mechanisms upon stem cell replacement for brain injury, including cellular/tissue regeneration/remodeling, oxidative stress, inflammatory response and autophagy;
• Immune-response problems following stem cell therapy for brain injury;
• Mitochondrial role after stem cell therapy for brain injury;
• Detection of stem cell therapy for brain injury using imaging techniques, i.e. brain magnetic resonance;
• Application of new tools, techniques, or models for studying stem cell viability or survival after implantation, such as organoids.

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New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

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About the Collection

Brain injury/damage, including brain trauma or stroke, has a high morbidity and mortality, and is often accompanied by severe neurological deficits post injury. Despite advances in therapeutics targeting brain repair and remodeling, positive clinical outcome is still a challenge and there continues to be a tremendous unmet clinical need for patients. Currently, transplantation of stem cells derived from several tissue sources has been recognized as very promising biologic-based therapy for regeneration and remodeling after brain injury, for instance, neural stem cells (NSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).
Upon brain injury, oxidative stress and inflammatory response are two early events in the biological cascade following brain injury. These two events are work synergistically and directly trigger the process of autophagy. Appropriate autophagy would contribute to brain recovery by reducing oxidative stress and inflammatory responses, whereas autophagy dysfunction exacerbates brain injury. Various studies have demonstrated that stem cells and their regenerative properties could impact tissue damage following brain injury in the following aspects: cellular replacement, secreting neurotrophic factors, and mitochondrial transfer. This collection aims to discuss the recent progress on stem cell therapy for brain injury, specifically studies elucidating the mechanisms in terms of oxidative stress, mitochondrion dysfunction and autophagy.

The collection welcomes all original and review articles on topics such as:
•   Stem cell therapy for brain repair after brain injury/damage, including brain trauma or stroke;
•   Underlying mechanisms upon stem cell replacement for brain injury, including cellular/tissue regeneration/remodeling, oxidative stress, inflammatory response and autophagy;
•   Immune-response problems following stem cell therapy for brain injury;
•   Mitochondrial role after stem cell therapy for brain injury;
•   Detection of stem cell therapy for brain injury using imaging techniques, i.e. brain magnetic resonance;
•   Application of new tools, techniques, or models for studying stem cell viability or survival after implantation, such as organoids.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Hailiang Tang, MD, Fudan University, China

Hailiang Tang, born in 1981, is now a vice professor of skull base tumor, working at Neurosurgery Department of Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
During my MD training (2008-2011) in Fudan University, I learned from professor Jianhong Zhu, a very famous stem cell expert in China, and made some achievements in neuroscience. The team which I jointed got the title of "National Science and Technology Progress Award (second prize)” in 2014.
In 2013, I was invited to deliver a speech at the 15th World Federation of Neurosurgery (WFNS) held in South Korea and received the scholarship from the organization. In 2018, I was awarded as Young Scientist in Yangtze River Delta in China. In 2019, I was invited to attend the ISSCR annual conference hosted in Los Angeles, USA.
Till now, I have published 45 SCI papers as the first author or correspondence, focusing on brain injury and stem cells. I am currently the editorial board of Stem Cells and Development and Neurosurgery. I also served as associate editor for Frontiers in Oncology. In addition, I am acting as reviewer for many journals. In 2020, I was interviewed by the Hindawi Publications.

Francisco Silva, BS, BioRestorative Therapies, United States

Francisco Silva is Vice President of Research and Development at BioRestorative Therapies, where he leads a team of scientists developing cell-based therapeutics targeting musculoskeletal and metabolic disorders. Currently Mr. Silva is the principal investigator of an FDA Phase 2 clinical trial using hypoxic cultured mesenchymal stem cells for chronic lumbar disc disease.

Mr. Silva has extensive experience in developing and translating cell-based therapeutics, he was one of the first to publish the use of stem cells in patients suffering from spinal cord injury in 2008. Mr. Silva is also developing cell-based approaches to treat metabolic disorders and was one of the first to develop an artificial 3D brown adipose transplant using human brown adipose stem cells. In addition, his research has led to the discovery of novel cell types isolated from umbilical cord, bone marrow and adipose tissue, he has several peer reviewed papers focused on regenerative medicine, and numerous issued patents in the field.
Mr. Silva graduated from California State Polytechnic University with a degree in Biology.

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Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original research articles and review papers. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal.

Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Editorial Manager. Please select the appropriate Collection title “Regeneration and Remodeling after Brain Injury: Implications for Stem Cell Therapy" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer-review process. The peer-review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.