Background: Despite various treatment methods, the damaged peripheral nervous system has become a severe problem in today's societies.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of cultured bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) on the chitosan-gelatin membrane and olive fruit extract in Wistar rat cutaneous sciatic nerve repair.
Methods: The chitosan-gelatin membrane was prepared after extraction of olive and extraction of BMSCs and cultivation in special pellets. Wistar rats were divided to 9 groups (n=5): healthy control, sciatic nerve injury(sni), sni treated with bone marrow stromal stem cells, sni treated with olive fruit extract, sni treated with olive fruit extract+bone marrow stromal stem cells, sni treated with olive fruit extract+chitosan-gelatin, sni treated with chitosan-gelatin+ bone marrow stromal stem cells, and sni treated with olive fruit extract+chitosan-gelatin+ bone marrow stromal stem cells. The treatment period was 8 weeks, then the evaluation of sni repair included electrophysiological, sciatic functional index, tissue sampling and immunocytochemistry, and histopathological examination.
Results: In the group treated with olive fruit extract +chitosan-gelatin+ bone marrow stromal stem cells, sciatic nerve repair was observed with an increase in nerve conduction velocity (m/s), amplitude muscle action potential (mv), number of (vessels and fiber), most significant area of vessels, myeline, axon, and fiber (1000 micro m2) and a decrease in statistic functional index (0 to -50) (P<0.0001).
Conclusion: The combination of olive extract, chitosan-gelatin, and bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs) demonstrated a significant reparative effect on sciatic nerve injury and could serve as a promising approach for peripheral nerve repair.