Abstract
Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are of great interest for regenerative purposes since they are believed to aid axonal growth. With the view set on the strategies to achieve reconnection between neuronal structures, it is of great importance to characterize the behaviour of these cells on long thread-like structures that may efficiently guide cell spread in a targeted way. Here, rat OECs were studied on polycaprolactone (PCL) long monofilaments, on long bars and on discs. PCL turns out to be an excellent substrate for OECs. The cells cover long distances along the monofilaments and colonize completely these struc- tures. With the help of a one-dimensional (1D) analytical model, a migration coefficient, a net proliferation rate constant and the fraction of all cells which undergo migration were obtained. The separate effect of the three phenomena summarized by these parameters on the colo- nization patterns of the 1D path was qualitatively dis- cussed. Other features of interest were also determined, such as the speed of the advance front of colonization and the order of the kinetics of net cell proliferation. Charac- terizing migration by means of these quantities may be useful for comparing and predicting features of the colo- nization process (such as times, patterns, advance fronts and proportion of motile cells) of different cellsubstrate combinations.
