A newly uncovered cell-signalling pathway could broaden strategies for repairing injured nerves.

Adult neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) cannot regenerate damaged axons, the branches that conduct electrical signals. Researchers have previously managed to induce axon regeneration in a mouse retina by deleting a gene called Pten, finding that the process activated the protein complex mTORC1. Bo Chen at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and his colleagues have now identified a second regeneration pathway. They found that deleting Pten in mouse retinal neurons also inactivates the metabolic enzyme GSK3β, and that deleting this enzyme in mice with optic-nerve injuries prompted the axons to regrow.

The authors suggest that combined manipulation of the two Pten pathways could lead to treatments to repair injured axons in the CNS.

eLife 5, e11903 (2016)