Repair of sciatic nerve defects with tissue engineered nerves constructed with marrow stromal cells / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Schwann calls are seed cells for constructing tissue engineered peripheral nerves. But their in vitro isolation, culture and purification are difficult. Acellular nerve allografts (ANA) have a great effect on repairing peripheral nerve defects, and it can induce marrow stromal cells (MSCs) into Schwann-like calls. Accordingly, MSCs can be used as seed calls theoretically in constructing tissue engineered peripheral nerves, instead of Schwann cells OBJECTIVE: To observe the repairing effect of tissue engineered peripheral nerves constructed with MSCs on sciatic nerve defects and to assess the feasibility of repairing peripheral nerve defects with MSCs as seed calls. DESIGN, TIME AND SE'I-rlNG A randomized control animal experiment was conducted in the laboratory of Basic Medicine Collage of Dali Collage from July to December in 2008.MATERIALS A total of 30 SD rats were divided randomly into 3 groups, with 10 in each group. In MSCs+ ANA group, end-to-end anastomosis were performed with 10/0 non traumatic suture to broken ends of rat sciatic nerves and tissue engineered nerves cultured using MSCs combined with ANA; In ANA group, ANA were bridged to broken ends of sciatic nerves; In METHODS: The 10ram sciatic nerve defects in rats were repaired using MSCs-constructed tissue engineered peripheral nerves, whose repairing effects were evaluated at week 12 post transplant through sciatic function index (SFI), gastrocnemius wet weight recovery rate, S-100 immunohistochemical staining and electron microscope observation, etc. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphological changes of calls were observed during the culture of compounds; SFI and gastrocnemius wet weight recovery rates were detected after transplantation; New myelinization, axon growth and nerve fiber distdbuUon were observed with toluidine blue staining; Schwann calls growth and nerve fiber regeneration were observed with transmission electron microscope combined with S-100 protein immunohistochemical staining method.RESULTS: The detection results showed that SFI and gastrocnemius wet weight recovery rate were higher in the MSCs+ ANA group than in the ANA group (P < 0.05). Compared the ANA group, the MSCs+ ANA group had more S-100 proteins expressed in its compounds obviously, and the number, the diameter of its myelinated nerve fibers as well as its myelin sheath thickness were all greater than those of the ANA group (P < 0.05). The repairing effect of the MSCs+ ANA group was close to that of the autotransplantation group.CONCLUSION: MSCs-constructed tissue engineered nerves have a better effect on repairing peripheral nerve defects than ANA, and MSCs as seed cells have a high value in peripheral nerve tissue engineering.