Effect of peripheral blood mononuclear cells on ischemia-reperfusion injury of sciatic nerve of adult male albino rat: histological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural study

ABSTRACT

Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of sciatic nerve is a serious condition that results in nerve fiber degeneration, and reperfusion causes oxidative injury. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) have neuroregenerative power. This study was carried out to evaluate the potential ameliorative effect of PBMNCs on changes induced by I/R injury of the sciatic nerve. Fifty adult male albino rats were divided into donor and experimental groups that were subdivided into four groups: group I (control group), group II received 50 µL PBNMCs once intravenously via the tail vein, group III rubber tourniquet was placed around their Rt hind limb root for 2 hours to cause ischemia, group IV was subjected to limb ischemia as group III, then they were injected with 50 ul PBMNCs as group II before reperfusion. I/R injury showed disorganization of nerve fascicles with wide spaces in between nerve fibers. The mean area of collagen fibers, iNOS immunoexpression, and number of GFAP-positive Schwann cells of myelinated fibers showed a highly significant increase, while a highly significant reduction in the G-ratio and neurofilament immunoexpression was observed. Myelin splitting, invagination, evagination, and myelin figures were detected. PBMNC-treated group showed a marked improvement that was confirmed by histological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural findings.

KEYWORDS:

• GFAP
• iNOS
• neurofilaments
• peripheral blood mononuclear cells
• sciatic nerve
• ultrastructure

Disclosure statement

They have no relevant conflicts of interest, as reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval statement

The experimental methods were authorized by the Ethics Committee of Tanta University’s Faculty of Medicine in Egypt. The approaches used for the care and use of experimental animals were compliant with internationally accepted standards (Approval number: 36264PR21416123).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.