Macrophages Regulate Schwann Cell Maturation After Nerve Injury

The study by Stratton et al. from 2018 investigated the influence of macrophages on Schwann cell maturation and remyelination after nerve injury. It was found that macrophages, which persist at the injury site, have a complex transcriptional profile that includes the expression of Gas6, a factor crucial for Schwann cell remyelination. Depleting macrophages resulted in an increase of immature Schwann cells, reduced remyelination, and long-term deficits in nerve conduction velocity. Additionally, the absence of Gas6 in monocyte lineage cells led to impaired Schwann cell remyelination within the injured nerve. These findings highlight the importance of macrophages and Gas6 in nerve regeneration, suggesting that targeting macrophage-derived factors like Gas6 could be a potential therapeutic approach for enhancing nerve repair. However, the document did not provide the number of subjects used in the in vivo experiments, which is important for assessing the strength of the study.