TY - JOUR T1 - Purification and Characterization of Schwann Cells from Adult Human Skin and Nerve JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0307-16.2017 SP - ENEURO.0307-16.2017 AU - Jo Anne Stratton AU - Ranjan Kumar AU - Sarthak Sinha AU - Prajay Shah AU - Morgan Stykel AU - Yuval Shapira AU - Rajiv Midha AU - Jeff Biernaskie Y1 - 2017/05/02 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2017/05/02/ENEURO.0307-16.2017.abstract N2 - Despite its modest capacity for regeneration, peripheral nervous system injury (PNI) often results in significant long-term disability. Supplementing PNI with autologous Schwann cells (SCs) may serve to rejuvenate the post-injury environment to enhance regeneration and ultimately improve functional outcomes. However, human nerve-derived SC (hN-SC) collection procedures require invasive surgical resection. Here we describe the characterization of SCs from adult human skin (hSk-SCs) of 4 male donors ranging between 27 and 46 years old. Within 5-weeks of isolating and culturing adherent mixed skin cells, we were able to obtain 3-5 million purified SCs. We found that hSk-SCs appeared transcriptionally indistinguishable from hN-SCs with both populations exhibiting expression of Schwann cell genes including: SOX10, SOX9, AP2A1, CDH19, EGR1, ETV5, PAX3, SOX2, CX32, DHH, NECL4, NFATC4, POU3F1, S100B, and YY1. Phenotypic analysis of hSk-SCs and hN-SCs cultures revealed highly enriched populations of SCs indicated by the percentage of SOX10+ve cells (89% and 77%, respectively) and a battery of other SC-associated proteins (PAX3, CDH19, ETV5, SOX2, POU3F1, S100B, EGR2, and YY1). We further show that both hSk-SCs and hN-SCs are capable of promoting axonal growth to similar degrees; and that a subset of both associate with regenerating axons and form myelin following transplantation into the injured mouse sciatic nerve. Interestingly, although the majority of both hSk-SCs and hN-SCs maintained SOX10 immunoreactivity following transplant, only a subset of each activated the promyelinating factor, POU3F1 (60% and 51% of cells). Taken together, we demonstrate that adult hSk-SCs are genetically and phenotypically indistinguishable to hN-SCs.Significance Statement This work demonstrates for the first time that Schwann cells can be isolated from adult human skin. Skin-derived Schwann cells maintain their growth promoting properties and closely resemble Schwann cells derived from the sciatic nerve, thus representing a highly accessible source of autologous Schwann cells for nervous system repair. ER -