ObjectiveTo investigate the mechanism of muscle-derived cells (MDCs) in repairing sciatic nerve defects in mice by observing the early growth of damaged peripheral nerves.MethodsThe hind limb skeletal muscles of mice carrying enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was collected to extract and culture EGFP-MDCs to P1 generation for later experiments. Five-mm-long nerve defects were created in the right sciatic nerves of C57BL/6 mice to establish a peripheral nerve defect model. The two stumps of sciatic nerve were bridged with 7-mm-long polyurethane (PUR) conduit. For the MDC group, EGFP-MDCs were injected into the PUR conduit. The PUR group without EGFP-MDCs was used as the negative control group. At 1 and 2 weeks after operation, the proximal and distal nerve stumps of the surgical side were collected to generally observe the early growth of nerve. Immunofluorescence staining of S100β, the marker of Schwann cells, was performed on longitudinal frozen sections of nerve tissues to calculate the maximum migration distance of Schwann cells, and observe the source of the Schwann cells expressing S100β. Immunofluorescence staining of phosphorylated erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (p-ErbB2) and phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK) in transverse frozen sections of nerve tissue was performed to calculate the positive rates of both proteins.ResultsThe general observation showed that the proximal and distal stumps of the surgical side in PUR group were not connected at 1 and 2 weeks after operation, while the bilateral nerve stumps in the MDC group were connected at 2 weeks after operation. Immunofluorescence staining showed that the Schwann cells expressing S100β in proximal and distal nerve stumps of PUR group and MDC group was not connected at 1 week after operation. At 2 weeks after operation, the Schwann cells expressing S100β in the two nerve stumps of the MDC group were connected, but not in the PUR group. At 2 weeks after operation, the sum of the maximum migration distance of Schwann cells in the regenerated nerve in both two groups was significantly increased when compared with that in each group at 1 week after operation, and that of MDC group was significantly higher than that in the PUR group at both 1 and 2 weeks after operation, the differences were all significant (P<0.05). At 1 week after operation, the positive rates of p-ErbB2 and p-FAK in the proximal nerve stump of MDC group were significantly higher than those in PUR group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the positive rate of p-ErbB2 of proximal stump between the two groups at 2 weeks after operation (t=0.327, P=0.747), while the positive rate of p-FAK of MDC group was significantly higher than that of PUR group (t=4.470, P=0.000). At 1 and 2 weeks after operation, the positive rates of p-ErbB2 and p-FAK in the distal stump of MDC group were significantly higher than those in PUR group (P<0.05). At 1 and 2 weeks after operation, part of Schwann cells expressing S100β, which were derived from EGFP-MDCs, could be observed in the regenerated nerves of MDC group.ConclusionMDCs can promote the phosphorylation of ErbB2 and FAK in the nerve stumps of mice, and promote the migration of Schwann cells. MDCs can be differentiated into cells expressing the Schwann cell marker S100β, or as other cellular components, to involve in the early repair of peripheral nerves.