Purification of olfactory nerve ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulb.

Cells of the olfactory nerve layer of the olfactory bulb are labeled with the O4 antibody, which also labels Schwann cells, oligodendrocytes, and many oligodendrocyte-type-2 astrocyte (O-2A) progenitors. Purification of cells which were O4+, but did not express galactocerebroside (GC), from spinal cord, hippocampus, corpus callosum, and cerebellum of perinatal rats always yielded cells with the expected characteristics of O-2A progenitors. In contrast, the great majority of O4+GC- cells isolated from the olfactory bulb expressed an antigenic phenotype and pattern of differentiation in vitro which did not correspond with that of any previously described glial populations. As the localization of O4 staining in the olfactory bulb indicates that these cells are olfactory nerve ensheathing cells (ONECs), our results therefore suggest that ONECs represent a novel glial cell-type which can now be analyzed as a purified population.