Schwann Cell Metabolic Activity in Various Short-Term Holding Conditions: Implications for Improved Nerve Graft Viability

Abstract

Strategies for improvement of nerve regeneration and optimal conditions to prevent Schwann cell (SC) loss within a nerve transplant procedure are critical. The purpose of this study was to examine SC viability, which plays an important role in peripheral nerve regeneration, under various incubation conditions up to three hours. To address this issue, Schwann cell metabolic activity was determined using different independent test methods. The following experimental conditions were compared: SCs prepared from nerves were incubated in (1) isotonic saline solution (2) Dulbecco's modified Eagles medium as used for cell culturing, (3) Hannover bioreactor medium, and (4) Leibovitz's medium. SC metabolic activity of excised rat sciatic nerve was determined at 4°C, 18°C, and 37°C over 3 hrs. The results indicate that SC activity was optimized by the usage of Leibovitz's medium or HBRM at 37°C. Greater SC viability at the time of surgical nerve grafting could contribute to improved axonal regeneration and remyelination after nerve transplantation, and thus more successful functional recovery.

Static Image Analysis as New Approach for the Characterization of Tumor Cell Lysate Used in Dendritic Cell Vaccine Preparation

“…Commonly used approaches to characterize the viability of cells are broadly based on techniques to assess the integrity of the cell membrane as well as the overall cell/particle size since necrotic cells tend to burst and form fragments [13,14,15,16]. Here, we used for the first time a novel computer-assisted imaging strategy, SIA, to test avitalization of TL from patients with glioblastoma.…”

“…This includes the need to prove that all tumor cells within a given TL have been completely destroyed. Approaches that are commonly used to characterize the integrity of cells, such as dye exclusion assays, are also applied to test the viability of TL [13,14,15,16]. In fact, trypan blue staining is widely used to investigate whether a TL sample is contaminated with viable tumor cells that could be harmful for patients [17,18,19].…”