Effect of Minocycline in Olfactory Nerve Regeneration

JAVIER H FOTTI; LORENA RELA; ANA PAULA PIANTANIDA; VERÓNICA RISSO; AGOSTINA M STAHL

Buenos Aires

Congreso; FIRST MEETING GLIA CLUB SOUTHERN CONE; 2022

Club de la glía

When toxic damage is applied to the olfactory nerve, itincreases the density and reactivity of myeloid cells in the afferentolfactory pathway. It is unclear whether this phenomenoncontributes to the regeneration of the olfactory nerve. In thisexperiment, we assessed whether minocycline a modified tetracyclinethat inhibits reactivity and proliferation of myeloid cellshad an impact on the rate of recovery of the damaged olfactoryepithelium. C57BL/6 mice were treated with the olfatotoxinmethimazole (75 mg/kg) to damage the olfactory epithelium,and the following day half the mice started consumption of adlibitum regular water whilst the other half received minocycline(0.25 mg/ml in drinking water), for a period of one or twoweeks depending on when the tissue was processed. We discoveredthat the level of recovery of olfactory epithelium thicknesswas slightly improved with minocycline (15% by week 1and 7% by week 2 after damage). In addition, minocyclineincreased the proportion of immature neurons by week 1 (p=.0093, post-hoc test after significant interaction in 2-wayANOVA). Nevertheless, there wasn’t an improvement in theproportion of mature neurons produced during regenerationat the observed time points. These results suggest that minocyclinemodulates olfactory nerve regeneration. However, furtheranalysis must be done to identify the mechanisms involved.