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Dissecting spinal cord regeneration

Abstract

The inability to recover functions lost after severe spinal cord injury has been recognized for millennia and was first attributed to a failure of spinal cord neural regeneration over 100 years ago. The last forty years have seen intense research into achieving such regeneration, but in spite of conceptual advances and many reports announcing successful interventions, progress has been slow and often controversial. Here, I examine consequential advances and setbacks, and critically consider assumptions underlying certain approaches. I argue that expanding mechanistic knowledge about multiple forms of neural regeneration, why they fail and how they can restore function will resolve conceptual contentions and push the field forward.

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Fig. 1: The concept of axon regeneration now encompasses multiple forms of axon growth after SCI.
Fig. 2: The mechanisms underlying regeneration failure vary in different SCI lesion compartments.
Fig. 3: Incomplete and complete SCI lesions will benefit from targeting different forms of regeneration.

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Acknowledgements

Work in the laboratory of M.V.S. is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NS084030), the Dr Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Foundation, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Wings for Life.

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Nature thanks R. Giger, B. Zheng and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Sofroniew, M.V. Dissecting spinal cord regeneration. Nature 557, 343–350 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0068-4

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