Direction of nerve cells is critical for restoring spinal cord after injury, says study

Directing and nudging nerve cells while regrowing them is critical to restoring the ability to walk in mice with spinal cord injuries, scientists at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), US, found. They failed to restore functionality to the spinal cord by merely regenerating nerve fibres, without directionally guiding their growth, from nerve cells that help make improvements in walking across the spinal cord wound.

The researchers then used chemical signals and observed significant improvements in the walking ability of the mouse model of complete spinal cord injury, they reported in their study published in the journal Science.

The chemical signals were employed to attract and guide the regeneration of these spinal cord axons to their natural target region across the wound.


A treatment approach triggering regrowth of axons - fibres linking nerve cells and enabling them to communicate - after spinal cord injury in rodents had been identified in previous studies, including one in Nature journal in 2018.

Restoring functionality had remained a challenge, however.

"(Our study) 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," said Michael Sofroniew, a senior author of the study and professor of neurobiology at UCLA.

The study findings have implications for developing therapies aimed at restoring neurological functions in larger animals and humans, the researchers said, whilst acknowledging the complexity involved in nerve cell regeneration in non-rodents.

They concluded, nonetheless, that 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."