Feeding the Schwanns: New technique could bring cell therapy for nerve damage a step closer

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) — A new way to grow cells vital for nerve repair, developed by researchers from the University of Sheffield, could be a vital step for use in patients with severe nerve damage, including spinal injury (1).
Schwann cells are known to boost and amplify nerve growth in animal models, but their clinical use has been held back because they are difficult, time-consuming and costly to culture.
The Sheffield team, led by Professor John Haycock, has developed a new technique with adult rat tissue which overcomes all these problems, producing Schwann cells in less than half the time and at much lower cost.
"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 Professor Haycock, from the University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
"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."
Existing methods for growing Schwann cells from adult tissue promote the growth of another type of cell, called fibroblasts, which swamp the Schwann cells, reducing the speed they grow and their numbers. This means that large amounts of tissue are needed at the outset, to grow sufficient cells for therapeutic use. It also requires extra purification stages added to the process, making it slow and costly -- taking up to 3 months to complete.
Professor Haycock and his team have come up with a very simple solution: feed the Schwann cells but starve the fibroblasts. The research, published October 11 in Nature Protocols
, uses an amino acid that only the Schwann cells can break down and feed off, and are able to produce a 97 per cent pure population of Schwann cells in a much shorter space of time -- just 19 days -- from a small sample of adult tissue.
Professor Haycock is confident the technique can be replicated in humans. His team are trialling same method using human nerve tissue, with results expected within the next 6 months.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Sheffield, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Rossukon Kaewkhaw, Andy M Scutt, John W Haycock. Integrated culture and purification of rat Schwann cells from freshly isolated adult tissue. Nature Protocols, 2012; 7 (11): 1996 DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2012.118
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Prolonged formula feeding, delay in solid foods was associated with increased risk for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2012) — Results of one study indicate that the risk for developing pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia increased the longer a baby was fed formula and the longer solid foods were delayed.

"For every month that a child was fed formula, taking into account other feeding practices, we found that the risk for this type of cancer was higher," said Jeremy Schraw, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, who presented the findings of an epidemiological study at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held in Anaheim, Calif. Oct. 16-19, 2012. "If a baby is fed only formula, he or she will not be getting any immune factors from the mother, which could be leading to this greater risk."

Schraw and colleagues surveyed 284 controls and 142 children from the Texas Children's Cancer Center and the National Children's Study in Houston, San Antonio and Austin, Texas, who had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Compared with controls, children diagnosed with ALL started solid foods significantly later, more of their mothers smoked during pregnancy and they had a longer duration of formula feeding.

Researchers found that the risk for developing ALL increased by 16 percent for every month of formula feeding. In addition, for each month the introduction of solid foods was delayed, the risk increased by 14 percent.

"One explanation for this co-risk may be that it's the same effect being picked up twice," said Schraw. "Children being given solid foods later may be receiving formula longer." Future research should address the factors influencing prolonged formula feeding and delay in solid food introduction, according to the researchers.

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