Schwann-cell proliferation in muscle-vein combined conduits for bridging rat sciatic nerve defects

Among the various grafting procedures that have been studied as alternatives to traditional fresh nerve autografts for the repair of severed peripheral nerves, muscle-vein-combined graft conduits have recently been devised and successfully employed. In the present study, the early presence, origin, and proliferation activity of Schwann cells (SCs) along this particular type of biological graft conduit have been investigated, using antibodies directed against glial fibrillar acid protein (GFAP), a protein that is specifically expressed in glial cells, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a protein that is expressed by cells during DNA synthesis. Results showed that the muscle-vein-combined graft was progressively invaded by a number of GFAP-immunopositive SCs, many of which were also found to be immunopositive for PCNA, thus demonstrating that their proliferation continues to occur inside the graft. Among the molecules that could be involved in the stimulation of Schwann-cell proliferation is neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) that mediates its effects by binding to the ErbB receptor tyrosine kinase family. In the present study, the authors report on the RT-PCR analysis for NRG-1 and ErbB3 mRNAs, showing an overall increase in the content of these transcripts inside the muscle-vein-combined graft. These results suggest that the muscle-vein-combined graft conduit constitutes an environment favorable to potentiate Schwann-cell proliferation during the early regeneration phases.