Topic: Schwann cells

Peripheral nerves are highly susceptible to injuries. Severe nerve injuries with complete disruption in the nerve continuity need surgical intervention; injuries with nerve substance loss need a nerve substitute to fill the gap. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine techniques have developed several artificial nerve substitutes of natural or synthetic origins to face this issue.In the present study, electrospun nanofibrous membranes composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyaniline (PANI) blend, further doped with camphor-10-sulfonic acid (CSA), were prepared in random and aligned orie

The dynamics of biological systems depend on complex cell-cell interactions. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized vehicles of intercellular communication which shuttle several molecules from cell to cell, thus influencing relevant biological processes. Previous literature based on EV isolation from cell culture medium highlighted how EVs in the peripheral nervous system could be important mediators in the molecular dialogue between neurons and Schwann cells. Here, we aim to extract EVs directly from peripheral nerve tissue, as this would give the unique opportunity to characterize EVs fr

Vincristine (VCR), an anticancer drug, frequently causes chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). We have reported that macrophages (Mφ)-derived HMGB1 is involved in CIPN induced by paclitaxel in mice, whereas the mechanisms for VCR-induced CIPN (VIPN) remain unclear. We thus examined whether VIPN involves HMGB1 derived from Mφ or Schwann cells in mice. VCR at 0.2 mg/kg was administrated i.p. to mice daily for 10 days with a 2-day break, and nociceptive threshold at the hindpaw was evaluated by von Frey test. An anti-HMGB1-neutralizing antibody (HMGB1-Ab), soluble thrombomodulin (TMα

Schwann cells (SCs) are the principal glia of the peripheral nervous system and are in close contact with axons to ensure a fast propagation of electrical impulses. After nerve injury, myelinating SCs distal to the injury site dedifferentiate into pro-regenerative repair SCs. In a later phase after injury, repair SCs must redifferentiate into myelinating cells to provide a fully functional regenerated nerve. Meyer zu Reckendorf et al. recently showed the important role of metabolic adaptation in SC reprogramming after injury in an ex vivo nerve lesion model. In particular, lipid metabolism dow

Peripheral nerve degeneration (PND) regulated by Schwann cells in a hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-pathway-dependent manner is well known, but the underlying molecular properties of Schwann cells during PND are unclear. We investigated H2S signaling in in vitro- and ex vivo-dedifferentiated Schwann cells as unipotent stem cells by using global proteomics (LC-MS) and transcriptomics (whole-genome and small RNA-sequencing [RNA-seq]) methods. The multi-omics analyses identified several genes and proteins related to oxidative stress, such as Sod1, Gnao1, Stx4, Hmox2, Srxn1, and Edn1. The responses to oxid

Aims. Interleukin-33 is a protein enhancing Th2 cytokine production, initially described as an alarmin that is released from dying, necrotic cells to affect the immune response. Therefore, we aimed to examine the role of IL-33 in response to both CNS and PNS injury. Methods and Results. Using qPCR, Western blotting, and ELISA assay we showed significant up-regulation of IL-33 in two models of nervous system pathology in response to demyelination of the CNS white matter and sciatic nerve crush. We showed that IL-33 is produced exclusively by non-myelinating oligodendrocytes in the intact white

The chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an autoimmune disease affecting myelin and neural structures of the PNS. In recent studies, propionic acid (PA) showed anti-inflammatory and disease modifying effects in multiple sclerosis patients. Additionally, PA exerted neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects in PNS in vitro cell cultures of Schwann cells (SC) and dorsal root ganglia (DRG). In this study, we investigate the potential effects of PA on SC derived from rats sciatic nerve. First, SC were treated with IFNγ to induce MHC-II receptor expression, which was measu

Vestibular schwannomas (VS) are a type of tumour which arises from Schwann cells in the vestibulocochlear nerve. Common symptoms in VS patients include hearing loss, tinnitus and vestibular function alterations. One hypothesis for these vestibular functional losses is that tumour secretions may damage the vestibular epithelia. Although benign, these tumours pose a danger to eloquent brainstem structures and excision through a trans-labyrinthine approach may be necessary. This presents an opportunity to examine the histologic state of VS patients' vestibular epithelia and relate it to their ves

The transcriptional corepressors NCOR1 and NCOR2 are part of a multiprotein complex that downregulates Jun and triggers the transcription of myelin genes in cultured Schwann cells (SC) (Gomis-Coloma et al., 2018). Both corepressors are also expressed in oligodendrocyte lineage cells, both oligodendrocytes (OL), and in OL precursor cells (OPCs), suggesting that they might contribute to their development and function (Castelo-Branco et al., 2014). Using genetically modified mice we have previously shown that they are dispensable for myelin development in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In t

Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a protease expressed in CNS by various cells and it is mainly known for its thrombolytic function in the treatment of stroke. While its contribution to myelination within the central nervous system is known, its involvement in peripheral remyelination processes remains to be explored. Indeed, in physiological conditions, Schwann cells, responsible for myelination, express low levels of tPA, however its expression increases following injuries to peripheral nerves. Therefore, our study focused on elucidating involvement of tPA in peripheral nervous system re