Schwann cells transplanted into the CNS.
A small volume of purified Schwann cells, cultured from early postnatal rat sciatic nerve, was injected into the hippocampus or fimbria of syngeneic adult hosts. The procedure caused minimal structural disturbance at the transplantation site, with close graft-host contact and maximal opportunity for integration. The donor Schwann cells were identified by a combination of light and electron microscopic features (which include characteristic deep and complex infoldings of a well marked nuclear envelope), antigenic profile (especially low affinity nerve growth factor receptor immunoreactivity), uptake of fluorescent latex microspheres and autoradiography of [3H]thymidine-labelled dividing cells. The donor Schwann cells adopted a distinctive elongated form, with a central, ovoid nucleus flanked by processes which were up to 300 microns long, and which ranged from swollen segments with a diameter as large as 12 microns down to thread-like fibres of 1 microns or less with growth cone-like expansions. Transplanted cells migrated from the graft, particularly along blood vessels and could permeate all cytoarchitectonic regions of the adjacent host hippocampal neuropil. Donor Schwann cells also migrated along the longitudinal axis of the fimbria, where they were interspersed in parallel with the interfascicular glial rows and axons. The grafted cells induced a transient but marked host astrocytic hypertrophy, which did not appear to impede the migration of the donor Schwann cells. The transplanted Schwann cells did not form peripheral myelin (as detected by P0 immunoreactivity), and it is not clear whether they survive beyond the period at which we detect them.
Raisman
G
G
Norman and Sadie Lee Research Centre, Laboratory of Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, U.K.
Lawrence
J M
JM
Brook
G A
GA
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000502:physiology; D017690:Cell Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008863:Microspheres; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000166:cytology; D013118:Spinal Cord Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D013936:Thymidine / Q000378:metabolism
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D013936:Thymidine