Dual Contribution of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Employed for Tissue Engineering of Peripheral Nerves: Trophic Activity and Differentiation into Connective-Tissue Cells

Adult peripheral nerves in vertebrates can regrow their axons and re-establish function after crush lesion. However, when there is extensive loss of a nerve segment, due to an accident or compressive damage caused by tumors, regeneration is strongly impaired. In order to overcome this problem, bioengineering strategies have been employed, using biomaterials formed by key cell types combined with biodegradable polymers. Many of these strategies are successful, and regenerated nerve tissue can be observed 12 weeks after the implantation. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the key cell types and the main stem-cell population experimentally employed for cell therapy and tissue engineering of peripheral nerves. The ability of these cells to release a range of different small molecules, such as neurotrophins, growth factors and interleukins, has been widely described and is a feasible explanation for the improvement of nerve regeneration. Moreover, the multipotent capacity of MSCs has been very often challenged with demonstrations of pluripotency, which includes differentiation into any neural cell type. In this study, we generated a biomaterial formed by EGFP-MSCs, constitutively covering microstructured filaments made of poly-ε-caprolactone. This biomaterial was implanted in the sciatic nerve of adult rats, replacing a 12-mm segment, inside a silicon tube. Our results showed that six weeks after implantation, the MSCs had differentiated into connective-tissue cells, but not into neural crest-derived cells such as Schwann cells. Together, present findings demonstrated that MSCs can contribute to nerve-tissue regeneration, producing trophic factors and differentiating into fibroblasts, endothelial and smooth-muscle cells, which compose the connective tissue.