Glial precursor cells (GPCs) have shown great promise for spinal cord injury (SCI) repair. They have been used to approach different therapeutic repair strategies in SCI. These include replacement of oligodendrocytes to promote remyelination of demyelinated and/or regenerated axons; providing a permissive substrate for axonal regeneration to overcome the intrinsic inhibition of surface molecules; and engendering host repair. The potential resources for human GPCs included the fetal central nervous system from abortion, human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, or the direct reprogramming from somatic cells. The advantages and disadvantages of each cell resource are discussed. The great therapeutic potential of GPCs has been demonstrated in preclinical animal models for many human diseases, including SCI. However, there are several challenges that need to be overcome before the stem cell therapies can be translated to clinic benefiting the patients with SCI. These challenges are also discussed. Although obstacles need to be overcome for clinical application, the rapid progress in the stem cell field makes their use to treat SCI and other neurological disorders more feasible than ever.
