Establishment of Schwann cell lines from normal adult and embryonic rat dorsal root ganglia

Schwann cells, an important component of the peripheral nervous system, interact with neurons to mutually support growth and replication in the embryo and survival acid differentiated function in the adult. The ability of adult Schwann cells to re-enter the cell cycle after nerve injury is crucial to their role in nerve repair. This ability suggests that it should be possible to obtain non-transformed, cell lines which maintain the characteristics of proliferating adult Schwann cells in vivo, as well as obtaining Schwann cells from rapidly dividing embryonic tissues. One approach to obtaining normal functionally differentiated cell lines has been to start primary cultures in serum-free medium containing growth factors and attachment proteins specifically selected to favor the replication of the cell type of interest. By culturing dispersed dorsal root ganglia on laminin, in serum-free medium with hormones and growth factors, we repeatedly generate homogenous Schwann cell cultures which yield normal Schwann cell lines from the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of both embryonic and adult rats. These cells maintain the phenotype of Schwann cells as determined by morphology and staining for GFAP, S100, p75 NGF receptor, laminin, and MAG production in co-culture with DRG neurons.