Axon guidance molecules

Axon guidance molecules

To survey axon guidance in 1995 is to cover a very different field from some 30 years ago, when Sperry elaborated his idea of chemoaffinity to explain the precision of regeneration of the amphibian retinotectal map (Sperry, 1963). With hindsight we know that Sperry was overenthusiastic in his attribution of molecular labels to define tectal addresses and that the role of electrical activity in ...

Guidance molecules in axon regeneration.

The regenerative capacity of injured adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) tissue is very limited. Disease or injury that causes destruction or damage to neuronal networks typically results in permanent neurological deficits. Injury to the spinal cord, for example, interrupts vital ascending and descending fiber tracts of spinally projecting neurons. Because neuronal structures located p...

Molecules making waves in axon guidance.

Axon guidance molecules in vascular patterning.

Endothelial cells (ECs) form extensive, highly branched and hierarchically organized tubular networks in vertebrates to ensure the proper distribution of molecular and cellular cargo in the vertebrate body. The growth of this vascular system during development, tissue repair or in disease conditions involves the sprouting, migration and proliferation of endothelial cells in a process termed ang...

Semaphorins in axon regeneration: developmental guidance molecules gone wrong?

Semaphorins are developmental axon guidance cues that continue to be expressed during adulthood and are regulated by neural injury. During the formation of the nervous system, repulsive semaphorins guide axons to their targets by restricting and channelling their growth. They affect the growth cone cytoskeleton through interactions with receptor complexes that are linked to a complicated intrac...