Schwann Cells Overexpressing FGF‐2 Alone or Combined with Manual Stimulation Do Not Promote Functional Recovery after Facial Nerve Injury

Abstract

Purpose. To determine whether transplantation of Schwann cells (SCs) overexpressing different isoforms of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) combined with manual stimulation (MS) of vibrissal muscles improves recovery after facial nerve transection in adult rat. Procedures. Transected facial nerves were entubulated with collagen alone or collagen plus naïve SCs or transfected SCs. Half of the rats received daily MS. Collateral branching was quantified from motoneuron counts after retrograde labeling from 3 facial nerve branches. Quality assessment of endplate reinnervation was combined with video-based vibrissal function analysis. Results. There was no difference in the extent of collateral axonal branching. The proportion of polyinnervated motor endplates for either naïve SCs or FGF-2 over-expressing SCs was identical. Postoperative MS also failed to improve recovery. Conclusions. Neither FGF-2 isoform changed the extent of collateral branching or polyinnervation of motor endplates; furthermore, this motoneuron response could not be overridden by MS.

Improved Functional Recovery After Facial Nerve Reconstruction by Temporary Denervation of the Contralateral Mimic Musculature With Botulinum Toxin in Rats

“…The combination of morphological and quantitative evaluation of selective reinnervation of the target musculature by retrograde fluorescence tracing and functional assessment by digital motion analysis of the vibrissae allows a precise estimation of the quality of facial nerve regeneration. 3,[16][17][18] Previously, we have shown that terminal sprouting at the end plates of the target musculature is also an important factor influencing the degree of defective healing after nerve regeneration. 3 This and the role of the supraspinal centers controlling locomotion of the whiskers [19][20][21][22][23] was not analyzed in the present study.…”

Perspectives in regeneration and tissue engineering of peripheral nerves

“…Actually, this does not appear to be the case in the nerve regeneration research and, espe-cially in recent years, several papers have been published reporting negative results after various tissue engineering approaches in experimental animal models Grosheva et al, 2008;Haastert et al, 2009;Sinis et al, 2008Sinis et al, , 2009Skouras et al, 2009). …”

Gene Therapy in Rodents Models of Traumatic Peripheral Nerve Injury

“…This review presents an overview of nowadays gene therapy for peripheral nerve injury. The use of this therapeutic strategy holds great hope in the nerve repair field because it lies mainly in providing prolonged extra bioactive trophic factors support, within the site of injury, resulting in the improvement of survival of sensory and motor neurons and SCs; increased SC motility; axon regrowth and remyelination; reinnervation; and, ultimately, functional recovery [15,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], as shown in Table 1.…”