Role of resident macrophages in peripheral nerve regeneration after mechanical injury

We here propose to study the distinct subsets of macrophages recruited during peripheral nerve
injury. The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) has unique repair capacities as compared to the Central
Nervous System (CNS) and PNS macrophages have been proposed to play a central role in repair
after mechanical injury of peripheral nerves. However, in contrast to CNS macrophages, much
remains unknown about macrophages populating the PNS and both the origin of PNS macrophages
and the precise role they play in the repair process remain unclear. We have been studying
peripheral nerve macrophages during the repair after mechanical injury and found evidence for an
important heterogeneity within the macrophage pool present in the injured nerve. We here
propose to characterize the function of the different macrophage subsets in peripheral nerve
regeneration. This should pave the way to strategies aiming at speeding up the repair process.