Abstract
Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) have been reported to promote axonal regeneration when transplanted to rodent spinal cord injury models. OECs are available from the olfactory bulb (OB) and olfactory mucosa (OM). Although harvesting OECs from OM is less traumatic, OECs originating from the OM are less proliferative than those from the OB (OB-OECs). One possible reason for this difference is co-existing fibroblasts. Here we examined the effect of co-culturing either fibroblasts from the OB (OB-Fibs) or fibroblasts from the OM (OM-Fibs) on the proliferation of OB-OECs. Proliferation of OB-OECs was significantly higher in 5:5 co-culture with OB-Fibs and in 7:3 and 5:5 co-cultures with OM-Fibs than without fibroblasts. These results indicated that the co-culture with both OB-Fibs and OM-Fibs promoted the proliferation of OB-OECs.
