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Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10, 235–241 (1 March 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrn2591

The bright side of the glial scar in CNS repair

Asya Rolls , Ravid Shechter & Michal Schwartz

Following CNS injury, in an apparently counterintuitive response, scar tissue formation inhibits axonal growth, imposing a major barrier to regeneration. Accordingly, scar-modulating treatments have become a leading therapeutic goal in the field of spinal cord injury. However, increasing evidence suggests a beneficial role for this scar tissue as part of the endogenous local immune regulation and repair process. How can these opposing effects be reconciled? Perhaps it is all a matter of timing.