Olfactory Ensheathing Cell Cultures

Over the past several years, neuroscientists have developed a considerable interest in a glial cell found only in the first cranial nerve. These glial cells, which are referred to as “olfactory ensheath-ing cells,” provide ensheathment for the unmyelinated axons of the olfactory nerve (Doucette, 1984 , Doucette, 1986 , 11 ,1 ; Raisman, 1985 ). Two major reasons why these cells have become so popular are their ability, first, to promote the long-distance growth of regenerating axons in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) (Li et al., 1997 ; Perez-Bouza et al., 1998 ; Ramon-Cueto and Nieto-Sampedro, 1994 ; Ramon-Cueto et al., 1998 ; Smale et al., 1996 ), and second, to remyelinate spinal cord axons in adult rats (Franklin et al., 1996 ; Imaizumi et al., 1998 ). For an overview of the cell biology of these glial cells, the reader is referred to several reviews on the subject (Doucette, 1990 , Doucette, 1995 ; Franklin and Barnett, 1997 ; Ramon-Cueto and Avila, 1998 ; Ramon-Cueto and Valverde, 1995 ). The present chapter chiefly addresses those cell biological aspects that are pertinent to obtaining purified cell cultures of ensheathing cells from the fetal rat olfactory bulb.