A quantitative morphometric analysis of rat spinal cord remyelination following transplantation of allogenic Schwann cells

Quantitative morphometric techniques were used to assess the extent and pattern of remyelination produced by transplanting allogenic Schwann cells into demyelinated lesions in adult rat spinal cords. The effects of donor age, prior culturing of donor cells, prior lesioning of donor nerves, and host immunosuppression were evaluated by transplanting suspensions of 30,000 acutely dissociated or cultured Schwann cells from neonatal, young adult, or aged adult rat sciatic nerves into X-irradiation and ethidium bromide-induced demyelinated dorsal column lesions, with or without co-transplantation of neonatal optic nerve astrocytes. Three weeks after transplantation, spinal cords were processed for histological analysis. Under all Schwann cell transplant protocols, large areas containing many Schwann cell-like myelinated axon profiles could be readily observed throughout most of the lesion length. Within these "myelin-rich" regions, the vast majority of detectable axons showed a peripheral-like pattern of myelination. However, interaxonal spacing also increased, resulting in densities of myelinated axons that were more similar to peripheral nerve than intact dorsal columns. Freshly isolated Schwann cells remyelinated more axonal length than cultured Schwann cells, and cells from younger donors remyelinated slightly more axon length than cells from older donors, but all Schwann cell transplant protocols remyelinated tens of thousands of millimeters of axon length and remyelinated axons at similar densities. These results indicate that Schwann cells prepared under a variety of conditions are capable of eliciting remyelination, but that the density of remyelinated axons is much lower than the myelinated axon density in intact spinal cords. J. Comp. Neurol. 443:259-274, 2002. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.