Assessment of Schwann cell purity cultured in autologous human serum for spinal cord injury repair

Purity of cultured Schwann cell is very important in patients’ outcome. The purpose of this study was evaluation of cell purity in a culture without nerve growth factors and fetal bovine serum. In this experimental study, for culture of human Schwann cells, nerve growth factors and fetal bovine serum were replaced by human autologous serum. Obtaining a consent from the close relative, nerve grafts were harvested and transported to processing unit where they were cultured in DMEM upon aseptic condition. Then the cultured cells were evaluated with S100 antibody staining for both morphology and purity. Cell purity range was from 97% to 99% (mean=98.11±0.782%). Cell count was 14055.56±2480.479 per microliter. There was not significant correlation between cell purity with either the culture period or the age of donors (P>0.05). The Spearman correlation coefficient for the cell purity with the culture period and the age of donors was -0.21 and -0.09, respectively. We found that the replacement of nerve growth factors and fetal bovine serum with human autologous serum improves the cultured Schwann cells for clinical use with more safety and minimum reagents.