Regeneration in vitro of the adult frog sciatic sensory axons

The adult frog sciatic nerve offers several advantages as an in vitro model to study nerve regeneration. The nerve with the attached dorsal root ganglia can easily be isolated and incubated in a culture medium for several days. If the nerve is subjected to a crush immediately after dissection there is a delay of 3.4 days after which the sensory axons start to regenerate into the distal nerve stump at a constant rate of about 1.1 mm · day⁻¹ in serum-containing and 1.0 mm · day⁻¹ in serum-free medium. Serum-free cultures may be used in future studies to examine the effect of various neurotrophic factors. The existence of an accurate method for examining the outgrowth distance, based on axonal transport of labelled proteins, contributes to the attractiveness of the model. A compartmental culture system permits separate exposure of the ganglia and the nerve to different agents. Taking advantage of this, pharmacological studies suggest that Schwann cells produce signals, dependent on newly transcribed RNA, which transform the preparation into a growth state. The present model system offers favourable conditions to learn more about the early events and also the subsequent steps of the regeneration process.