X-Message-Number: 18003 From: "Jan Coetzee" <> Subject: Dogma refuted: Axons can regenerate long-distance Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2001 23:25:33 -0500 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0037_01C173AC.FBABE440 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_001_0038_01C173AC.FBABE440" ------=_NextPart_001_0038_01C173AC.FBABE440 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Dogma refuted: Axons can regenerate long-distance 21 November 2001 16:35 EST by Apoorva Mandavilli, BioMedNet News Combining two relatively straightforward surgical procedures, German scientists have made the remarkable discovery that mature neurons possess the intrinsic ability to re-grow their axons over long distances. They will report next month that after cut ends of a rat optic nerve are sutured together, severed axons can bypass molecular barriers, grow all the way to the target area in the brain, and form functional connections with the visual cortex. "That's really a big deal," said Larry Benowitz, director of neuroscience research at Children's Hospital in Boston. "No one has ever got that kind of regenerative growth." Scientists have been studying CNS regeneration for more than 200 years, but prevailing notions held that molecular inhibitors, scar-forming astrocytes, and a lack of neurotrophins make regeneration over long distances impossible. But Solon Thanos and his colleagues at the University of M nster report that up to 30% of retinal ganglion cells regenerated their axons along the entire visual pathway. The results show that "in principle, a lot more growth is possible than we previously thought," Benowitz told BioMedNet News. "It's a really, really dramatic demonstration." http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=011122&story=1 ------=_NextPart_001_0038_01C173AC.FBABE440 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18003