Characterization of the technique involved in isolating Schwann cells from adult human peripheral nerve

Only recently has it been possible to isolate large quantities of adult derived Schwann cells (SCs) from peripheral nerves in cell culture. These techniques can be easily applied to the isolation of human SCs. We evaluated the influence of donor age and length of explant culture time on the purity of the human SC preparations obtained from a large number (n = 35) of live organ donors ranging in age from 1 to 63 years. The average SC purity from all donors was 92.7 +/- 2.73% and did not appear to be influenced by donor age or duration of culture time in excess of 1 week. Myelin debris was a prominent feature of human SCs prepared in culture and could be detected within histological sections of cultured peripheral nerve segments as well as within human SCs obtained from enzymatic dissociation of the peripheral nerves. This report supports the reproducibility of the techniques involved in isolating human SCs from peripheral nerve from a large series of donors and addresses the mechanism in which a period of cell culture permits the isolation of large quantities of adult human SCs.