Functional Regeneration of the Sensory Root via Axonal Invasion

Following spinal root injuries, unlike other peripheral nerves, the sensory axons from DRG neurons fail to regenerate back into the spinal cord. This study found that DRG neurons do not properly re-enter the spinal cord because, after injury, they fail to initiate actin-based invasion. The study used a zebrafish model to examine DRG axon regeneration following laser-induced injury. Researchers discovered that by using pharmacological (Taxol) and cell-autonomous genetic manipulations (CA-Src) to promote actin-mediated cell invasion, they could restore sensory behavior in the zebrafish model. Taxol stabilizes invasion components to drive spinal cord re-entry following injury. The study demonstrates that by stimulating axons to re-enter the spinal cord via invasion, it's possible to achieve functional sensory root regeneration after injury. They demonstrated restoration of sensory circuit activity and behavior upon stimulating axons to re-enter the spinal cord via invasion.

• 1
  Regenerating DRG sensory axons do not initiate actin-based invasion components during re-entry into the spinal cord following avulsion-like injuries.
• 2
  Pharmacological stabilization of invasion components with Taxol promotes DRG axon spinal re-entry after injury, suggesting that stabilizing these components can rescue regeneration.
• 3
  Cell-autonomous induction of invasion components using constitutively active Src (CA-Src) in DRG cells drives invasion and promotes axonal regeneration, indicating an intrinsic mechanism can be activated to drive regeneration.