BACKGROUND: Animal experiments and clinical studies about tissue engineering method applied to repair nerve injury mainly focus on seeking ideal artificial nerve grafts, nerve conduit and seed cells. Autologous nerve, allogeneic nerve and xenogeneic nerve are used to bridge nerve defects, it is one of the methods to promote the repair of nerve injury by culturing and growing Schwann cells, which can secrete various neurotrophic factor activities, in the grafts.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acellular nerve grafts co-cultured with Schwann cells in repairing defects of sciatic nerve.DESIGN: An observational comparative study.SETTING: Tissue Engineering Laboratory of China Medical University.MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out in the Tissue Engineering Laboratory of China Medical University between April 2004 and April 2005. Forty neonatal Sprague-Dawley rats of 5-8 days (either males or females) and 24 male Wistar rats of 180-220 g were provided by the experimental animal center of China Medical University.METHODS: ① Culture of Schwann cells: The bilateral sciatic nerves and branchial plexus were isolated from the 40 neonatal SD rats. The sciatic nerves were enzymatically digested with collagenase and dispase, isolatd, purified and cultured with the method of speed-difference adhersion, and identified with the SABC immunohistochemical method. ② Model establishment: In vitro Schwann cells were microinjected into 10-mm long acellular nerve grafts repairing a surgically created gap in the rat sciatic nerve.According to the different grafted methods, the animals were randomly divided into three groups: autografts (n=8), acellular nerve grafts (n=8), or acellular nerve grafts with Schwann cells (n=8). ③ The regenerated nerve fiber number and average diameter of myeline sheath after culture were statistically anlayzed.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① The regenerated nerve ultrastructure, total number and density of myelinated nerve fibers, and the thickness of myeline sheath were observed under electron microscope. ② The images were processed with the Mias-1000 imaging analytical system to calculate the number of myelinated nerve fibers, and the thickness of myeline sheath.RESULTS: All the 24 Wistar rats were involved in the analysis of results. ① Results observed under transmission electron microscope: The regenerated myelinated nerve fibers in the group of acellular nerve grafts with Schwann cells were more even than those in the group of acellular nerve grafts, the number of myelinated nerve fibers and thickness of myelin sheath were close to those in the allografts group (P ＞ 0.05),but significantly different from those in the group of acellular nerve grafts (P ＜ 0.05). ② Results observed under scanning electron microscope: A great amount of Schwann cells with two polars were observed in the group of grafts with Schwann cells, the feature of cultured Schwann cells showed shoulder by shoulder,head to head. ③ The number of myelinated nerve fibers and thickness of myelin sheath analyzed by Mias-1000 imaging system in the group of acellular nerve grafts with Schwann cells were close to those in the autografts group (P ＞ 0.05), but significantly different from those in the group of acellular nerve grafts (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: Host axonal regeneration is significantly increased after implant of acellular nerve grafts.Acellular nerve grafts with Schwann cells offers a novel approach for repairing the gap of nerve defect.