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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Curriculum Vitae B.S.,
Biology, Simmons College, 1953
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Research Interests This
is an exciting and promising time for spinal cord injury research,
because there are so many new strategies to test for improving outcome
after such an injury. Among the most promising approaches are halting
the secondary damage (neuroprotection) and eliciting as much axonal
growth through the lesion (regeneration) as possible. My laboratory
is pursuing both strategies. To halt the secondary damage after
the initial spinal cord injury, we have tested the administration
of glucocorticoids, substances that activate the immune system,
agents that increase cyclic AMP, and compounds that diminish the
effect of destructive cytokines liberated following injury. To foster
axonal regeneration following injury, we developed a novel method
of transplanting cellular bridges to provide a permissive substratum
for axonal growth across the injury. In general, we construct bridges
from Schwann cells, which are known to enhance regeneration in the
central nervous system. We have found that genetically engineering
the Schwann cells to secrete higher levels of neurotrophins improves
the regenerative response. The complexity of the tissue response
after spinal cord injury will undoubtedly require a combination
strategy to overcome the effects of the injury. Thus, we have conducted
experiments using cellular bridge transplantation along with agents
to reduce secondary tissue loss after injury and strategies to improve
regeneration such as the addition of neurotrophin administration
and transplantation of olfactory ensheathing glia. Olfactory ensheathing
glia are very promising; they are present normally in areas where
nerve fibers continue throughout adulthood to grow from a peripheral
nerve environment into central nervous tissue. Two lesion models
are being investigated presently, complete transection of the spinal
cord with transplantation of a cellular bridge, and transplantation
of cells into a lesion induced by contusion. Numerous methods are
used routinely in the laboratory: cell culture to provide adequate
numbers of cells, microsurgery for transplantation of cells, caring
for paralyzed and transplanted animals to ensure good health, behavioral
testing to assess improvement in function, immunocytochemistry to
detect types of regenerated fibers, neuroanatomical tracing to locate
the nerve cell bodies from which regenerated axons emanate, genetic
engineering, and superior histology to enable definition of the
transplanted cells and surrounding cord areas and to enable counting
numbers of axons that have regenerated. A new direction in my laboratory
is comparing gene responses in nerve cells that regenerate with
those that do not regenerate into the transplant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selected Publications Plant GW, Cuervo EP, Bates ML, Bunge MB, Wood PM (2002) Purified adult ensheathing glia fail to myelinate axons under culture conditions that enable Schwann cells to form myelin. J Neurosci (in press). Takami
T, Oudega M, Bates ML, Wood PM, Kleitman N, Bunge MB (2002) Schwann
cell but not olfactory ensheathing glia transplants improve hindlimb
locomotor performance in the moderately contused adult rat thoracic
spinal cord. Takami
T, Oudega M, Bethea JR, Wood PM, Kleitman N, Bunge MB (2002) Methylprednisolone
and interleukin-10 reduce gray matter damage in the contused Fischer
rat thoracic spinal cord but do not improve functional outcome. Casella GT, Marcillo A, Bunge MB, Wood PM (2002) New vascular tissue rapidly replaces neural parenchyma and vessels destroyed by a contusion injury to the rat spinal cord. Exp Neurol 173:63-76. Bunge MB (2001) Bridging areas of injury in the spinal cord. Neuroscientist 7:325-339. Plant GW, Bates ML, Bunge MB (2001) Inhibitory proteoglycan immunoreactivity is higher at the caudal than the rostral Schwann cell graft-transected spinal cord interface. Molec Cell Neurosci 17:471-487. Plant GW, Ramón-Cueto A, Bunge MB (2001) Transplantation of Schwann cells and ensheathing glia to improve regeneration in adult spinal cord. In: Axonal Regeneration in the Central Nervous System. Ingoglia NA, Murray M (eds). Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, pp. 529-561. Yan HL, Bunge MB, Wood PM, Plant GW (2001) Mitogenic response of adult rat olfactory ensheathing glia to four growth factors. Glia 33:334-342. Kleitman N, Bunge MB (2000) Olfactory ensheathing glia: their application to spinal cord regeneration and remyelination strategies. Topics in Spinal Cord Inj Rehab 6:65-81. Xu
XM, Zhang S-X, Li H, Aebischer P, Bunge MB (1999) Regrowth of axons
into the distal spinal cord through a Schwann-cell-seeded mini-channel
implanted into hemisected adult rat spinal cord. Eur
J Neurosci 11:1723-1740.
View published research articles by Dr. Bunge in the National Library of Medicine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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