Abstracts of the 18th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Neural Growth, Regeneration and Transplantation.

s of the 14th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Neural Growth, Regeneration and Transplantation 1. Oxidized Galectin-1 Regulates Initial Repair in Peripheral Nerves after Axotomy (II) – Initial Regulation of Neural Regeneration in Sciatic Nerves After Axotomy Hidenori Horie1, Yoshimasa Inagaki2, Yoshiaki Sohma2, Risa Nozawa2, Mitsuhiro Hasegawa3, Naoki Muramatsu3, Hitoshi Kawano4, Masao Horie4, Hiromichi Koyama5, Ikuko Sakai1, Kaori Takeshita1, Yuki Kowada1, Masahiko Takano6, Toshihiko Kadoya2 Departments of 1Physiology and 6Ophthalmology, Yokohama City University, School of Medicine and 5College of Nursing, Yokohama City University, Yokohama 236-0004, 2Pharmaceutical Research Laboratory, Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., Takasaki 370-1295, 3Department of Neurosurgery Kanazawa University, School of Medicine, Kanazawa, 920-0934, 4Anatomical Development, Tokyo Metropolitan Neuroscience Institute, Tokyo, 183-8526, Japan Oxidized galectin-1 (GAL-1/Ox) regulates axonal regeneration in the DRG explant. These in vitro results suggest that GAL-1/Ox may regulate nerve regeneration in vivo after axotomy. Here we used two kinds of acellular neural regeneration models, first a crush injury of the nerve combined with freezing of the distal stump, and second, a transection of the nerve with suturing of the proximal stump into a silicon tube with one end closed off. These acellular models are efficacious for the analysis of the effects of GAL-1/Ox on neural regeneration because the neural regeneration process is slow in the models. At 14 days after the operation, coronal sections at a distance of 6 mm distal to the crush site were analyzed under the electron microscope (EM). The number of the reactive Schwann cells was significantly higher in the GAL-1/Ox group than in the control group and most of them engulfed regenerating axons in the GAL-1/Ox treatment group. These in vitro nerve crush injury experiments suggest that GAL-1/Ox promoted axonal regeneration by the activation of Schwann cell migration into the acellular nerve. Further analysis of the effect of GAL-1/Ox on neural regeneration used the in vivo nerve-transection plus tubulation model. At 10 days after the operation, double immunostaining of both longitudinal and cross sections of frozen regenerated tissues taken from the silicone tubes was performed in the presence of anti-neurofilament and anti-S-100 antibodies. The results from the longitudinal sections show that the numbers and the migrating rate of Schwann cells together with regenerating axons were increased by the application of GAL-1/Ox and strongly reduced by that of anti-galectin-1 antibody. These results were confirmed by the cross sectional analysis. Since galectin-1 is expressed in the regenerating sciatic nerve and can be secreted, these experiments suggest that oxidized galectin-1 may regulate initial repair after axotomy. 2. Intraspinal Implants of Fibrin Glue Containing GDNF Enhance Dorsal Root Regeneration into the Host Spinal