title: Graft of a tissue-engineered neural scaffold serves as a promising strategy to restore myelination after rat spinal cord transection.
abstract: Remyelination remains a challenging issue in spinal cord injury (SCI). In the present study, we cocultured Schwann cells (SCs) and neural stem cells (NSCs) with overexpression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and its high affinity receptor tyrosine kinase receptor type 3 (TrkC), respectively, in a gelatin sponge (GS) scaffold. This was aimed to generate a tissue-engineered neural scaffold and to investigate whether it could enhance myelination after a complete T10 spinal cord transection in adult rats. Indeed, many NT-3 overexpressing SCs (NT-3-SCs) in the GS scaffold assumed the formation of myelin. More strikingly, a higher incidence of NSCs overexpressing TrkC differentiating toward myelinating cells was induced by NT-3-SCs. By transmission electron microscopy, the myelin sheath showed distinct multilayered lamellae formed by the seeded cells. Eighth week after the scaffold was transplanted, some myelin basic protein (MBP)-positive processes were observed within the transplantation area. Remarkably, certain segments of myelin derived from NSC-derived myelinating cells and NT-3-SCs were found to ensheath axons. In conclusion, we show here that transplantation of the GS scaffold promotes exogenous NSC-derived myelinating cells and SCs to form myelins in the injury/transplantation area of spinal cord. These findings thus provide a neurohistological basis for the future application or transplantation using GS neural scaffold to repair SCI.
authors: 1 Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors: Bi-Qin
authors: BQ
authors: Lai
authors: Jun-Mei
authors: JM
authors: Wang
authors: Eng-Ang
authors: EA
authors: Ling
authors: Jin-Lang
authors: JL
authors: Wu
authors: Yuan-Shan
authors: YS
authors: Zeng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D005260:Female; D005781:Gelatin Sponge, Absorbable / Q000737:chemistry; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000502:physiology*; D009416:Nerve Regeneration; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000502:physiology; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000503:physiopathology; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry