A new technique has been developed that could pave the way for patients with severe nerve damage to receive cell therapy, British researchers have reported.
Schwann cells boost and amplify nerve growth in animal models, but their clinical use has been thwarted because they are difficult, time-consuming and expensive to culture.
But Professor John Haycock, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and his team have developed a technique with adult rat tissue, which produces Schwann cells in less than half the time and at much lower cost.
The current method for growing Schwann cells from adult tissue involves promoting the growth of fibroblasts, which swamp the Schwann cells, thereby reducing the speed they grow and their numbers.
Because of this, large amounts of tissue are needed so that sufficient cells can be grown for therapeutic use. Extra purification stages have to be added to the process, which means it can take up to three months to complete and is costly.
Now Professor Haycock and his team have devised a method that feeds the Schwann cells but starves the fibroblasts.
It uses an amino acid that only the Schwann cells can break down and feed off and has resulted in the production of 97 per cent pure population of Schwann cells in just 19 days from a small sample of adult tissue.
“The ability of Schwann cells to boost nerve growth was proved many years ago in animals, but if you want to use this technique with patients, the problem is: where do you get enough cells from?” says Prof Haycock, whose study is published in the latest edition of Nature Protocols.
“To reduce immune rejection, the cells have to be grown from the patient’s own tissue. Of course, you want to take the smallest amount of tissue necessary, so the technique must be efficient. It must also be fast, so treatment can begin as soon as possible after injury. For clinical use, it must also provide pure Schwann cells. And finally, to make it viable, it has to be at a reasonable cost.”
The team is now moving its focus to replicating the technique in humans. Results are expected within the next six months.
Rossukon Kaewkhaw, Andy M Scutt & John W Haycock. Integrated culture and purification of rat Schwann cells from freshly isolated adult tissue. Nature Protocols doi:10.1038/nprot.2012.118.
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