The success of peripheral nerve regeneration is governed by the rate and quality of axon bridging and myelination that occurs across the damaged region. Neurite growth and the migration of Schwann cells is regulated by neurotrophic factors produced as the nerve regenerates, and these processes can be enhanced by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which also produce neurotrophic factors and other factors that improve functional tissue regeneration. Our laboratory has recently identified a population of mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) that can be harvested from traumatized muscle tissue debrided and collected during orthopaedic reconstructive surgery. The objective of this study was to determine whether the traumatized muscle-derived MPCs exhibit neurotrophic function equivalent to that of bone marrow-derived MSCs. Similar gene- and protein-level expression of specific neurotrophic factors was observed for both cell types, and we localized neurogenic intracellular cell markers (brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nestin) to a subpopulation of both MPCs and MSCs. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the MPC-secreted factors were sufficient to enhance in vitro axon growth and cell migration in a chick embryonic dorsal root ganglia (DRG) model. Finally, DRGs in co-culture with the MPCs appeared to increase their neurotrophic function via soluble factor communication. Our findings suggest that the neurotrophic function of traumatized muscle-derived MPCs is substantially equivalent to that of the well-characterized population of bone marrow-derived MPCs, and suggest that the MPCs may be further developed as a cellular therapy to promote peripheral nerve regeneration.

中文翻译：

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来自受伤肌肉的间充质祖细胞促进神经突生长。

周围神经再生的成功取决于受损区域发生的轴突桥接和髓鞘形成的速度和质量。神经突生长和雪旺氏细胞的迁移受神经再生时产生的神经营养因子的调节，这些过程可以通过间充质干细胞 (MSCs) 增强，MSCs 也产生神经营养因子和其他促进功能组织再生的因子。我们的实验室最近确定了一群间充质祖细胞 (MPC)，它们可以从骨科重建手术期间清创和收集的创伤肌肉组织中获取。本研究的目的是确定受创伤的肌肉源性 MPC 是否表现出与骨髓源性 MSC 相同的神经营养功能。在两种细胞类型中都观察到了类似的特定神经营养因子的基因和蛋白质水平表达，我们将神经源性细胞内细胞标记物（脑源性神经营养因子和巢蛋白）定位到 MPC 和 MSC 的亚群。此外，我们证明了 MPC 分泌的因子足以增强鸡胚胎背根神经节 (DRG) 模型中的体外轴突生长和细胞迁移。最后，与 MPC 共培养的 DRGs 似乎通过可溶性因子通讯增加了它们的神经营养功能。我们的研究结果表明，受创伤的肌肉源性 MPC 的神经营养功能与充分表征的骨髓源性 MPC 群体的神经营养功能基本相同，