Minkelyte, Kamile;
(2022)
Therapeutic potential of olfactory ensheathing cells for the repair of spinal cord injuries.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
After injury the adult central nervous system (CNS) lacks the capacity to repair and regenerate itself. This can lead to devastating and usually lifelong loss of function in patients. Previous studies have shown that transplanting cultured olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) has the potential to promote axonal regeneration and aid in functional recovery. Currently OECs derived from the olfactory bulb (bOECs) show greater functional improvement when compared to OECs derived from the olfactory mucosa (mOEC). However, due to the location of the tissue, using mOECs holds greater advantages for patient safety because acquiring bOECs requires invasive intracranial surgery. This study aimed to validate a modified media for culturing olfactory mucosal cells to determine if it improves the yield of OECs in a mucosa culture. I used a surgical animal model as well as behavioural tests to compare the functional regeneration when bOECs, mOECs and treated, high yield mOECs encapsulated in collagen gel are transplanted. Using a dorsal root injury model, I showed that bOEC, mOEC and the treated, high yield mOEC transplants promoted regeneration of damaged axons and restored loss of function to the same degree. This indicated that the collagen gel had a profound effect on the cells’ ability to induce regeneration, and the number of cells transplanted could be more important than the proportion of OEC to olfactory nerve fibroblasts (ONF). My study has provided some important information about collagen gel as a biomaterial candidate for cell transplantation. It was an effective method for implanting the cells into the injury site and retaining them in place. The use of biomaterials meant that a limited number of cells could be expanded to bridge a large injury area. In a preliminary study, I showed that these results were also reproduced in mOECs derived from human samples. The transplanted human cells lead to restoration of function. These were promising results for future work transplanting mOECs into patients with spinal cord injury.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Therapeutic potential of olfactory ensheathing cells for the repair of spinal cord injuries |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155808 |
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