Considerable effort has been made in researching the possibility of transplanting enteric neuronal stem/progenitor cells to repopulate the aganglionic intestine; however, this therapy remains limited to animal studies.[84]Sandgren K, Ekblad E, Larsson LT. Survival of neurons and interstitial cells of Cajal after autotransplantation of myenteric ganglia from small intestine in the lethal spotted mouse. Pediatr Surg Int. 2000;16:272-6.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10898228?tool=bestpractice.com
[85]Hu H, Ding Y, Mu W, et al. DRG-derived neural progenitors differentiate into functional enteric neurons following transplantation in the postnatal colon. Cell Transplant. 2019 Feb;28(2):157-69.
https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0963689718811061
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30442032?tool=bestpractice.com
Genome editing
The development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has led to advances in this potential therapy for Hirschsprung disease; however, this is limited to animal models and laboratory research using human induced pluripotent stem cell lines.[86]Lai FP, Lau ST, Wong JK, et al. Correction of Hirschsprung-associated mutations in human induced pluripotent stem cells via clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9, restores neural crest cell function. Gastroenterology. 2017 Jul;153(1):139-53.
https://www.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2017.03.014
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28342760?tool=bestpractice.com
[87]Rodríguez-Rodríguez DR, Ramírez-Solís R, Garza-Elizondo MA, et al. Genome editing: A perspective on the application of CRISPR/Cas9 to study human diseases (Review). Int J Mol Med. 2019 Apr;43(4):1559-74.
https://www.doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2019.4112
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30816503?tool=bestpractice.com