Vj. Turnbull et al., Variable galactocerebroside expression by human Schwann cells in dissociated and peripheral nerve explant cultures, J NEUROSC R, 65(4), 2001, pp. 318-321
Its has been well established that rat Schwann cells down regulate their ce
ll-surface expression of galactocerebroside (GalC) in vitro under normal ce
ll culture conditions. To determine whether human Schwann cells exhibit a s
imilar down-regulation of GalC in vitro we examined GalC expression in diss
ociated human Schwann cell cultures derived from normal adult peripheral ne
rve. Twenty-four hours post-dissociation up to 63% of human Schwann cells w
ere found to express detectable levels of GalC on their surface whereas les
s than 8% of the Schwann cells expressed detectable levels of GalC at 14 da
ys post-dissociation. In contrast, after nearly 3 months of peripheral nerv
e explant culture, greater than 30% of human Schwann cells still retained t
heir GalC expression. A similar pattern was also observed when analyzing Sc
hwann cell purity with dissociated cultures exhibiting a rapid decrease in
Schwann cell purity under normal culturing conditions although Schwann cell
purity was found to be largely unaffected during the period of peripheral
nerve explant culture. In summary, we found there was less variation in bot
h GalC expression and Schwann cell purity with time in peripheral nerve exp
lant cultures than dissociated cultures. (C) 2001 whey-hiss, Inc.