Transdifferentiated Schwann cell-like rat bone marrow stromal cells regenerate peripheral nerves

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are recently one of the most promising tools to heal severe diseases or injuries, even in the nervous system. Aim of our study was to show that MSC are able to transdifferentiate beyond other cell types into Schwann cells (SC), and that those cells may support the regeneration of injured peripheral nerves. Therefore we isolated MSCs from bone marrow of rats and urged them to transdifferentiate into SC-like cells (tMSC), which were injected into a muscle graft to AA1 bridge a 2-cm gap of the rat sciatic nerve. Three weeks after reconstruction muscle/tMSC-grafts showed an appropriate regeneration. In the muscle/MSC-grafts regeneration was impaired. Our results demonstrate that rMSC are able to transdifferentiate into SC-like cells and that these cells could be a useful tool to heal injuries of the peripheral nervous system (PNS).