Blood Vessels: The Pathway Used by Schwann Cells to Colonize Nerve Conduits

Overview

Journal Int J Mol Sci

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Chemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2022 Feb 26

PMID 35216370

Authors

Benedetta Elena Fornasari

Federica Zen

Giulia Nato

Marco Fogli

Federico Luzzati

Giulia Ronchi

Stefania Raimondo

Giovanna Gambarotta

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The repair of severe nerve injuries requires an autograft or conduit to bridge the gap and avoid axon dispersion. Several conduits are used routinely, but their effectiveness is comparable to that of an autograft only for short gaps. Understanding nerve regeneration within short conduits could help improve their efficacy for longer gaps. Since Schwann cells are known to migrate on endothelial cells to colonize the "nerve bridge", the new tissue spontaneously forming to connect the injured nerve stumps, here we aimed to investigate whether this migratory mechanism drives Schwann cells to also proceed within the nerve conduits used to repair large nerve gaps. Injured median nerves of adult female rats were repaired with 10 mm chitosan conduits and the regenerated nerves within conduits were analyzed at different time points using confocal imaging of sequential thick sections. Our data showed that the endothelial cells formed a dense capillary network used by Schwann cells to migrate from the two nerve stumps into the conduit. We concluded that angiogenesis played a key role in the nerve conduits, not only by supporting cell survival but also by providing a pathway for the migration of newly formed Schwann cells.

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