An in vitro culturing model for rabbit dural cells.

The objectives of this study were (a) to construct an in vitro model of rabbit dural healing, (b) to test the influence of collagen, laminin, and poly-L-lysine on the migration and proliferation of dural cells, and (c) to study the healing mechanism of duraplasty. Rabbit dural pieces (1.5 cm x 1.5 cm) were perforated in their central part with a 2 mm punch to mimic a dural defect. The dural pieces were cultured in 24-well plates that had been coated with collagen, laminin, or poly-L-lysine, and the influence of different extracellular matrices on migration and proliferation of dural cells was observed. Cells were subcultured on slides for immunocytochemistry to study their characteristics; dural healing was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that only the dural pieces that were cultured on collagen-coated wells showed migration of cells into the central defect after a period of 8 to 10 days and that healing of the dural defect occurred by 13 to 15 days. The cultured dural cells stained strongly positive with an antibody to vimentin, but negative with an antibody to factor VIII. New collagen fibers were observed in the dural defects. This report demonstrates that an in vitro model for dural healing was successfully constructed in collagen-coated wells; the results implicate cellular migration of fibroblasts from the dural defect margin as an important mechanism of wound healing following duraplasty.