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Researchers have discovered mechanism in the damaged spines of zebrafish that helps nerve connections to regrow. Zebrafish have the remarkable ability to regain full movement within four weeks of injury to their spinal cord.
Damage to human spinal cord leads to paralysis. After injury to the spinal cord in zebrafish, wound-healing cells called ‘fibroblasts’ move into the site of damage.
The fibroblasts produce a molecule called collagen 12, which changes the structure of the support matrix that surrounds nerve fibres.
This enables the damaged fibres to grow back across the wound site and restore the lost connections.
Scientists found that fibroblasts are instructed to make collagen 12 by a chemical signal called ‘wnt’.
Understanding these signals could hold clues for therapies to heal the spinal cord after injury. This connections between the brain and muscles of the body lost after spinal cord injury in humans can be used to provide better treatment
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