UT Southwestern Medical Center – October 12, 2016
Researchers successfully boosted the regeneration of mature nerve cells in the spinal cords of adult mammals – an achievement that could one day translate into improved therapies for patients with spinal cord injuries.
“This research lays the groundwork for regenerative medicine for spinal cord injuries. We have uncovered critical molecular and cellular checkpoints in a pathway involved in the regeneration process that may be manipulated to boost nerve cell regeneration after a spinal injury,” said senior author Dr. Chun-Li Zhang, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern. Dr. Zhang cautioned that this research in mice, published today by Cell Reports, is still in the early experimental stage and is not ready for clinical translation.
“Spinal cord injuries can be fatal or cause severe disability. Many survivors experience paralysis, reduced quality of life, and enormous financial and emotional burdens,” said lead author Dr. Lei-Lei Wang, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Zhang’s lab whose series of in vivo (in a living animal) screens led to the findings.
Spinal cord injuries can lead to irreversible neural network damage that, combined with scarring, can ultimately impair motor and sensory functions. These outcomes arise because adult spinal cords have very limited ability to regenerate damaged neurons to aid in healing, said Dr. Zhang, a W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research and member of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine.
Dr. Zhang’s lab focuses on glial cells, the most abundant non-neuronal type of cells in the central nervous system. Glial cells support nerve cells in the spinal cord and form scar tissue in response to injury. In 2013 and 2014, the Zhang laboratory created new nerve cells in the brains and spinal cords of mice by introducing transcription factors that promoted the transition of adult glial cells into more primitive, stem cell-like states, and then coaxed them to mature into adult nerve cells.
