Abstract
Like other parts of the central nervous system, the adult mammalian optic nerve is difficult to regenerate after injury. Transplantation of the peripheral nerve or a Schwann cell (SC) graft can promote injured axonal regrowth. We tried to develop a new type of tissue-engineered SC graft that consisted of SCs seeded onto a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/chitosan conduit. Meanwhile, SCs were transfected along the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) gene in vitro by electroporation to increase their neurotrophic effect. Four weeks after transplantation, GAP-43 labelled regenerating axons were found in the SC grafts, and axons in the CNTF-SC graft were longer than those in the SC graft. Tissue-engineered SC grafts can provide a feasible environment for optic nerve regeneration and may become an alternative for bridging damaged nerves and repairing nerve defects in the future.
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