Failure to Achieve Remyelination of Demyelinated Rat Axons Following Transplantation of Glial Cells Obtained from the Adult Human Brain

The ability of transplanted glial cells to myelinate axons in experimental animals offers the prospect that it may be possible to achieve remyelination in human demyelinating disease by the implantation of oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Autologous normal white matter could represent a potential source of cells whose use would avoid tissue rejection and overcome ethical and practical constraints associated with the use of fetal tissue. To determine the remyelinating potential of cells isolated from adult human CNS, a cell preparation prepared from adult human white matter which contained 56% oligodendrocytes, 3% preoligodendrocytes and 1% precursor cells was transplanted into non-repairing demyelinating lesions in immunosuppressed rats created by the injection of ethidium bromide into x-irradiated spinal cord white matter. The extent of remyelination was examined 3 and 5 weeks after transplantation. Although the transplanted oligodendrocytes survived in the area of demyelination, associated with demyelinated axons and produced myelin membranes, no myelin sheaths were produced and there was no evidence of cell migration or division. The failure of human oligodendrocytes to form myelin sheaths may reflect the poor remyelinating potential of post mitotic oligodendrocytes, and the failure of the small number of co-transplanted bipotential oligodendrocyte progenitor cells to differentiate and myelinate axons may be a consequence of lack of appropriate environmental factors within the rat lesion required for expansion and differentiation of these cells.