Nerves and Tissue Repair.
Abstract
Studies have been conducted with regenerating amphibian sciatic nerves in organ culture to characterize further transport and release of transferrin in growing axons of peripheral nerves. The hypothesis under investigation is that transferrin, the iron-transport protein which is required as a permissive factor for cell growth, is delivered axonally to target cells and is involved in the nerve-dependence of cell proliferation during repair in avascular tissues lacking an adequate supply of transferrin from capillaries. Amphibian (axolotl) limb regeneration is a well-characterized model system in which the early period of growth shows complete dependence on nerves. Organ culture of sciatic nerves, combined with an assay for axolotl transferrin developed earlier, allows quantitative study of the release of this factor as well as its transport. As reported elsewhere for regenerating nerves in vivo, distal delivery of transferrin by fast axonal transport was found in cultured nerves. Moreover, transferrin was secreted and released to the medium in significant quantities at the axonal growth cones. These results have important implications for understanding the trophic effect of regenerating nerves on cell proliferation during tissue repair. RA 2; Tissue repair; Regeneration; Peripheral nerves; Transferrin.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 21, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA255299
Entities
People
- Anthony L. Mescher
Organizations
- Indiana University Bloomington