Local Administration of Minocycline Improves Nerve Regeneration in Two Rat Nerve Injury Models

Peripheral nerve injuries are quite common and often require a surgical intervention. However, even after surgery, patients do not often regain satisfactory sensory and motor functions. This, in turn, results in a heavy socioeconomic burden. To some extent, neurons can regenerate from the proximal nerve stump and try to reconnect to the distal stump. However, this regenerating capacity is limited, and depending on the type and size of peripheral nerve injury, this process may not lead to a positive outcome. To date, no pharmacological approach has been used to improve nerve regeneration following repair surgery. We elected to investigate the effects of local delivery of minocycline on nerve regeneration. This molecule has been studied in the central nervous system and was shown to improve the outcome in many disease models. In this study, we first tested the effects of minocycline on SCL 4.1/F7 Schwann cells in vitro and on sciatic nerve explants. We specifically focused on the Schwann cell repair phenotype, as these cells play a central role in orchestrating nerve regeneration. Finally, we delivered minocycline locally in two different rat models of nerve injury, a sciatic nerve transection and a sciatic nerve autograft, demonstrating the capacity of local minocycline treatment to improve nerve regeneration.