Background: The failure of regeneration after spinal cord injury (SCI) has been attributed to axonal demyelination and neuronal death. Cellular replacement and white matter regeneration are both necessary for SCI repair. In this study, we evaluated the co-transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cells (OEC) and embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived motor neurons (ESMN) on contused SCI. Methods: OEC...

Recent reports have found that the posthatch chicken retina has the capacity for neuronal regeneration. The purpose of this study was to test whether the types of cells destroyed by neurotoxic lesions influence the types of cells that are regenerated, and whether exogenous growth factors stimulate neural regeneration in the chicken retina. N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) was used to destroy amacrin...

The olfactory epithelium contains neuronal progenitor cells capable of continuous neurogenesis and is a unique model for studying neural degeneration, regeneration, axon outgrowth and recovery from injury. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), have been implicated in cell turnover, development, migration, and metastatic processes. We used Western...

The organization and intricacy of the central and peripheral nervous systems pose special criteria for the selection of a suitable scaffold to aid in regeneration. The scaffold must have sufficient mechanical strength while providing an intricate network of passageways for axons, Schwann cells, oligodendrocytes, and other neuroglia to populate. If neural regeneration is to occur, these intricat...

The search for effective strategies for peripheral nerve regeneration has attracted much attention in recent years. In this study, ordered collagen fibers were used as intraluminal fibers after nerve injury in rats. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in nerve regeneration, but its very fast initial burst of activity within a short time has largely limited its clin...

Axolotls are uniquely able to mobilize neural stem cells to regenerate all missing regions of the spinal cord. How a neural stem cell under homeostasis converts after injury to a highly regenerative cell remains unknown. Here, we show that during regeneration, axolotl neural stem cells repress neurogenic genes and reactivate a transcriptional program similar to embryonic neuroepithelial cells. ...

sue is known as transdifferentiation, in which the local cells are able to dedifferentiate (lose the characteristics of their origin) and subsequently redifferentiate. Our lab has shown by transient lineage tracing that spinal cord cells (radial glial cells) can migrate into surrounding tissues and contribute to non-neural cells during regeneration [Science 298 (2002) 1993–1996]. In order to fo...

An important question in biology is why some animals are able to regenerate, whereas others are not. The basal chordate amphioxus is uniquely positioned to address the evolution of regeneration. We report here the high regeneration potential of the European amphioxus Branchiostoma lanceolatum. Adults regenerate both anterior and posterior structures, including neural tube, notochord, fin, and m...

sue is known as transdifferentiation, in which the local cells are able to dedifferentiate (lose the characteristics of their origin) and subsequently redifferentiate. Our lab has shown by transient lineage tracing that spinal cord cells (radial glial cells) can migrate into surrounding tissues and contribute to non-neural cells during regeneration [Science 298 (2002) 1993–1996]. In order to fo...

sue is known as transdifferentiation, in which the local cells are able to dedifferentiate (lose the characteristics of their origin) and subsequently redifferentiate. Our lab has shown by transient lineage tracing that spinal cord cells (radial glial cells) can migrate into surrounding tissues and contribute to non-neural cells during regeneration [Science 298 (2002) 1993–1996]. In order to fo...