Adipose-derived stem cells modified by TWIST1 silencing accelerates rat sciatic nerve repair and functional recovery

The regeneration of peripheral nerves after injury is often slow and impaired, which may be associated with weakened and denervated muscles subsequently leading to atrophy. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are often regarded as cell-based therapeutic candidate due to their regenerative potential. The study aims to assess the therapeutic efficacy of gene-modified ADSCs on sciatic nerve injury. We lentivirally transduced ADSCs with shRNA-TWIST1 and transplanted modified cells to rats undergoing sciatic nerve transection and repair. Results showed that TWIST1 knockdown accelerated functional recovery of rats with sciatic nerve injury as faster nerve conduction velocity and higher wire hang scores obtained by rats transplanted with TWIST1-silenced ADSCs than scramble ADSCs. Although the rats experienced degenerated axons and decreased myelin sheath thickness after sciatic nerve injury 8 weeks after operation, those transplanted with TWIST1-silenced ADSCs exhibited more signs of regenerated nerve fibers surrounded by newly formed myelin sheaths than those with scramble ADSCs. The rats transplanted with TWIST1-silenced ADSCs presented increased expressions of neurotrophic factors including neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in the sciatic nerves than those with scramble ADSCs. These results suggest that genetically modifying TWIST1 in ADSCs could facilitate peripheral nerve repair after injury in a more efficient way than that with ADSCs alone.