Nerve regeneration promoted in a tube with vascularity containing bone-marrow-derived cells

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Bone-marrow-derived cells (BMCs) are multipotent cells that have the potential to differentiate into bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, or neuronal lineages such as neurons and glial cells. A silicone-tube model containing reverse-pedicled sural vessels was created in the sciatic nerves of Lewis rats. About 1 x 10^7 BMCs, removed from the bone marrow of synergetic rat femurs and cultured in vitro, were transplanted into the 15 mm long chambers of the silicone tubes. Nerve regeneration in vessel-containing tubes that had received BMCs was significantly greater at 12 and 24 weeks after surgery than that in tubes that did not receive cells. Transplantation of fibroblasts instead of BMCs into the vessel-containing tube resulted in reduced axonal regeneration, which was inferior to regeneration in the vessel-containing tube that did not receive cells. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) studies revealed that in vessel-containing tubes containing transplanted BMCs, about 29% of cells in the regenerated nerve originated from BMCs. Cells identified by in situ hybridization and PKH26 prelabeling as being of BMC origin stained positively for S100 and GFAP. Transplanted BMCs differentiated into cells with phenotypes similar to those of Schwann cells under the influence of neurochemical factors and survived by obtaining nutrients from vessels that had been preinserted into the tube. They thus functioned similarly to Schwann cells, promoting nerve regeneration.