An Injury Paradigm to Investigate Central Nervous System Repair in Drosophila

This study introduces a method for studying how the central nervous system (CNS) responds to injury using fruit flies. The human CNS doesn't regenerate after damage, and understanding how to encourage regeneration is a major goal in medical neuroscience. The technique involves creating a lesion in the ventral nerve cord (VNC) of the fly larva, which is similar to the spinal cord in vertebrates. This injury is made using a fine needle, and the researchers can then observe how the injury develops over time using advanced microscopy. The method allows scientists to analyze large numbers of samples and combine this with the powerful genetics of fruit flies to study the molecular mechanisms behind CNS regeneration and repair.

• 1
  Stabbing injury to the larval VNC results in a visible lesion that can be tracked over time using GFP markers, with the wound area initially expanding before shrinking.
• 2
  Glial processes, visualized with DsRed, often fill the GFP-negative holes in the neuropile prior to their disappearance, suggesting a role for glia in the repair process.
• 3
  Stabbing injury induces apoptosis in both neurons and neuropile-associated glial cells, and also leads to an increase in glial cell proliferation.