Recent advances in spinal cord injury (SCI) research and cell culture techniques and biomaterials predict promising new treatments for patients with SCI or other nerve injuries. Biomaterial scaffolds form a substrate within which cells are instructed to form a tissue in a controlled manner. This study was designed to assess axon regeneration and locomotor recovery in rats with spinal cord injur...

OECs for spinal cord repair: Is repairing the injured spinal cord by olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation possible? A recent human trial in which a paralysed man regained some function after transplantation of partially purified OECs suggests that this therapy may be a successful approach (Tabakow et al., 2014). In another human trial in which olfactory mucosa lamina propria was tra...

Previously, it has been shown that rat Schwann cells (SCs), but not olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), form a boundary with astrocytes, due to a SC-specific secreted factor. Here, we identify highly sulfated heparan sulfates (HSs) and fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) 1 and 9 as possible determinants of boundary formation induced by rat SCs. Disaccharide analysis of HS in SC-conditioned and rat...

Olfactory bulb tissue transplantation inhibits P2X2/3 receptor-mediated neuropathic pain. However, the olfactory bulb has a complex cellular composition, and the mechanism underlying the action of purified transplanted olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) remains unclear. In the present study, we microencapsulated OECs in alginic acid, and transplanted free and microencapsulated OECs into the reg...

PURPOSE We recently demonstrated increased frequency and growth potential of late outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells (OECs) in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD). This study investigated the effects of short- and long-term in vitro inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) Receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) signaling by SU5416 and other inhibitors of the VEGF...

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) prepared from the olfactory bulbs of adult transgenic Sprague Dawley (SD) rats expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) were transplanted into a dorsal spinal cord transection lesion of SD rats. Five weeks after transplantation, the cells survived within the lesion zone and oriented longitudinally along axons that bridged the transection site. Although the h...

Olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation has emerged as a very promising therapy for spinal cord repair. In this study, we tested the ability of genetically modi®ed OECs to secrete high levels of glial cell linederived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) to promote spinal cord repair. The GDNF gene was transduced into OECs using a retroviral-based system. The engineered OECs were ®rst characteri...

There is still not an effective treatment for continuous retinal light exposure and subsequent photoreceptor degeneration. Olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation has been shown to be neuroprotective in spinal cord, and optic nerve injury and retinitis pigmentosa. However, whether OECs protect rat photoreceptors against light-induced damage and how this may work is unclear. Thus, to el...

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) express a high level of growth factors which play a very important role as neuronal support. Recent evidence in literatures showed that transplantation of OECs may improve functional restoration in 6-OHDA-induced rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the biological function of various factors released from OECs in Parkinson' disease is still unclear....

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasibility of isolating and expanding endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), in the form of late outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells (OECs), from the peripheral blood of an aged population, particularly patients affected by different forms of AMD. METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from young control subjects (n = 18) and from elderly subjects ...