Da Qing Li

　　美国UCL大学神经科学研究所

　　Olfactory ensheathing cells(OECs)provide one of the most promising approaches for repairing injuries of the central nervous system(CNS).Most results up to date have come mainly from OECs obtained from the olfactory bulb.To avoid intracranial surgery and to explore the possible use of autologous grafts we here report studies on obtaining OECs from olfactory mucosa in rat and ongoing results from investigations of biopsy samples of the adult human olfactory mucosa taken during routine transsphenoidal pituitary surgery or endonasal ENT operations.Cultures from olfactory bulb and mucosa showed different phenotypic composition and yielded different proportion of OECs.We have examined 32 biopsies from several different regions of the septal mucosa in patients undergoing routine pituitary surgery and studied the influence of biopsy position，size，and weight of the samples，as well as patient age on the quantity of the OECs yielded in culture.Our results showed that OECs can be cultured from biopsy samples of the adult human septal nasal mucosa.However precise mapping is needed to increase the success rate.The endonasal submucosal approach to the septal mucosa is adapted from a technique which has been safely used since early 1900’s.We are now examining cells cultured from 70 biopsies obtained endoscopically from the lateral wall of the nasal cavity above and around the superior turbinate.Our experience with rat models of the repair of optic nerve，spinal cord and spinal root lesions by transplantation of adult bulbar OECs provide us with a first line assay for comparing with the reparative properties of mucosal OECs.