Survival of retinal ganglion cells in slice culture provides a rapid screen for olfactory ensheathing cell preparations

Transplants of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) cultured from the olfactory bulb are able to induce structural regeneration of severed central axons and return of function in rat models. For clinical purposes it would be preferable to obtain the cells from the more accessible olfactory mucosa in the nasal lining. However, in our laboratory preparations cultures from mucosal samples yielded around 5% of OECs compared with the 50% obtained from samples cultured from the bulb, and when transplanted these mucosal cell preparations were less effective at repair. There are a number of manipulations which may increase the OEC content and the effectiveness of mucosal preparations, but in vivo transplantation would be a highly labour intensive method for evaluating them. As a candidate for a high throughput assay to screen for beneficial effects of modifications to mucosal cells we here report the effects of co-culture of the cells with retinal explants. Both bulbar and mucosal cell preparations prolong the survival of the explants. Counts of the surviving retinal ganglion cells, identified by β-III-tubulin immunohistochemistry and by their axon trajectory, show that the bulbar cell preparations have around twice the potency of those from the mucosa. This in vitro system, therefore, provides a bioassay that discriminates bulbar and mucosal cell preparations, and a useful tool for evaluating the functional effects of manipulations of cultured mucosal preparations.

Research highlights►Co-culture with OECs prolongs the survival of neurons in retinal explants ►The length of survival differs between bulbar and mucosal cell cultures ►The system provides a rapid in vitro assay screen for different OEC preparations