Establishment of Schwann cell culture with a serum-free medium at rats of newborn and adult age

Objective To explore the possibility of establishment of newborn and adult rat Schwann cell culture with “M” serum free medium. Methods Newborn (aged 1 ～ 3 days) and adult ( aged 3 ～ 4 months) Lewis rat sciatic nerves were harvested and Schwann cells were obtained after a differential adhesion and a three week in vitro Wallerian degeneration, respectively. Schwann cells were then incubated with the “M” serum free medium for one week. The rates of purity and proliferation of cultured Schwann cells were assessed by S 100 and 5 bromo 2 deoxyuridine (BrdU) immunostaining. Results After one week of Schwann cell culture, the purity and the proliferation rates of newborn Schwann cells were 95 % and 73.8 %, and those of adult Schwann cells were 93 % and 38.3 %, respectively. Moreover, the DNA syntheses of most of contaminated fibroblasts were interrupted. Conclusions With the application of the “M” serum free medium, the technique of Schwann cell culture was simplified and the contamination of fibroblasts was effectively controlled.