Regenerative Action and Immune Modulation of Bone Marrow Cell Transplant in Sciatic Nerve Injury

VANINA USACH; PIÑERO, GONZALO; SOTO, PAULA A.; MARIANELA VENCE; SETTON-AVRUJ, PATRICIA

Córdoba

Congreso; XXXIII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Wallerian degeneration induced by nerve lesion is a simpleand useful experimental approach to study peripheral nervoussystem degeneration and regeneration.We have shownsystemically transplanted bone marrow cells to spontaneouslymigrate to and remain in the injured nerve for aslong as 60 days. A small number of these cells upregulatedmarkers unexpressed before transplant, leading to cellphenotypic changes and transdifferentiation to Schwanncells, while a significantly larger proportion left the tissueonce the inflammatory phase had finished. They alsoenhanced axonal regeneration and remyelination, promotedfunctional recovery and prevented lesion-induced hyperalgesia.The aim of the present work is to evaluate whethertransplanted bone marrow cells exert their well-establishedbeneficial effect on sciatic nerve regeneration throughimmunomodulation. Adult C57BL/6 mice received intravenousbone marrow cell or vehicle transplant after 8-s nervecrush. Along recovery, functional aspects were evaluatedthrough hot plate and walking track tests. Animals werethen sacrificed for immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and flowcytometry studies. So far, the mouse model resemblesresults obtained in rats in terms of remyelination. Mostinterestingly, qPCR results showed that transplanted animalsappear to undergo a downregulation of pro-inflammatoryand an upregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines.Further studies are required to fully corroborate immunomodulationeffects.