16 May, 2006 02:20 GMT
The findings provide hope for treating blindness caused by optic-nerve damage, but also look promising for spurring similar regeneration in the spinal cord and brain.
Researchers said Monday a newly discovered growth factor could hold the key to regenerating damaged optic nerves -- and more. The research team at Children's Hospital in Boston say they have found a naturally occurring, previously unrecognized growth factor that stimulates regeneration in injured optic nerves.
The findings provide hope for treating blindness caused by optic-nerve damage, but also look promising for spurring similar regeneration in the spinal cord and brain, they said.
The growth factor is called oncomodulin and when it was added to retinal nerve cells in the lab, with known growth-promoting factors already present, the growth of axons -- or cells in the optic nerves -- nearly doubled.
No other growth factor was as potent, the researchers said.
More Nerve Regeneration
In live rats with optic-nerve injury, oncomodulin released from tiny sustained-release capsules increased nerve regeneration five- to seven-fold when given along with a drug that helps cells respond to oncomodulin, the team said.
Oncomodulin also appears to switch on a variety of genes associated with axon growth, the researchers said.
"Out of the blue, we found a molecule that causes more nerve regeneration than anything else ever studied," said one of the study investigators. We expect this to spur further research into what else oncomodulin is doing in the nervous system and elsewhere.
The data are published in the May 14 online edition of
Nature Neuroscience.
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