Guiding cells to natural target region key to functional recovery. In a new study in mice, a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Harvard University have uncovered a crucial component for restoring functional activ
have uncovered a crucial component for restoring functional activity after spinal cord injury. The neuroscientists have shown that re-growing specific neurons back to their natural target regions led to recovery, while random regrowth was not effective.the team identified a treatment approach that triggers axons — the tiny fibers that link nerve cells and enable them to communicate — to regrow after spinal cord injury in rodents.
The researchers then found that merely regenerating axons from these nerve cells across the spinal cord lesion without specific guidance had no impact on functional recovery. However, when the strategy was refined to include using chemical signals to attract and guide the regeneration of these axons to their natural target region in the lumbar spinal cord, significant improvements in walking ability were observed in a mouse model of complete spinal cord injury.
“Our study provides crucial insights into the intricacies of axon regeneration and requirements for functional recovery after spinal cord injuries,” said Michael Sofroniew, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a senior author of the new study. “It highlights the necessity of not only regenerating axons across lesions but also of actively guiding them to reach their natural target regions to achieve meaningful neurological restoration.
Nevertheless, they conclude that applying the principles laid out in their work “will unlock the framework to achieve meaningful repair of the injured spinal cord and may expedite repair after other forms of central nervous system injury and disease.”Reference: “Recovery of walking after paralysis by regenerating characterized neurons to their natural target region” by Jordan W. Squair, Marco Milano, Alexandra de Coucy, Matthieu Gautier, Michael A. Skinnider, Nicholas D.
This work was supported by the Defitech Foundation, Wings for Life, Riders4Riders, Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, Swiss National Science Foundation ; the Morton Cure Paralysis Foundation ; the ALARME Foundation ; the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Foundation ; Wings for Life ; Holcim-Stiftung Foundation ; and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research . We are grateful to J. Ravier and M. Burri for the illustrations and to L. Batti and I.
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