neuregulin-1 tagged posts

The green signal in these images of an injured zebrafish heart and a fin indicate the activity of a gene that enhances tissue regeneration. Credit: Junsu Kang, Duke University

Limb or organ regrowth may be hidden in our genes. If you trace our evolutionary tree way back to its roots – long before the shedding of gills or the development of opposable thumbs – you will likely find a common ancestor with the amazing ability to regenerate lost body parts. Lucky descendants of this creature, including today’s salamanders or zebrafish, can still perform the feat, but humans lost much of their regenerative power over millions of years of evolution.

A Duke study has discovered the presence of regulatory sequences in zebrafish, a favored model of regeneration research...

This is a confocal micrograph taken from the lesion core after a spinal cord injury. Nuclear EdU (red) shows the presence of newly differentiated cells which produce Schwann cell myelin (P0, green). These peripheral-like Schwann cells remyelinate central axons in the injured spinal cord and are important for spontaneous repair and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Credit: King’s College London

Researchers have identified a molecular signal, known as ‘neuregulin-1’, which drives and enables the spinal cord’s natural capacity for repair after injury. The findings could one day lead to new treatments which enhance this spontaneous repair mechanism by manipulating the neuregulin-1 signal.

Every year >130,000 people suffer traumatic spinal cord injury and related healthcare costs ar...