MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A fish might hold clues to healing spinal cord injuries in humans, researchers report. The damaged nerve cells of zebrafish can survive a spinal cord injury, eventually restoring full movement in the fish.
That’s very unlike humans and most other mammals, in which damaged neurons always die, researchers said. But the way the zebrafish neurons first survive and then heal run counter to some of the ways in which research efforts are trying to treat spinal cord injuries in humans, the new study says. Damaged neurons in a zebrafish’s spinal cord dramatically alter their function, with a focus on survival.
They then take on new roles in guiding the precise events that guide healing. “In zebrafish, we think severed neurons can overcome the stress of injury because their flexibility helps them establish new local connections immediately after injury,” said senior researcher Mayssa Mokalled , an associate professor of developmental biology with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
“Our research suggests this is a temporary mechanism that buys time, protecting neurons from death and allowing the system to preserve neuronal circuitry while building and regenerating the main spinal cord,” Mokalled added in a university news release. This is very different from the way human neurons respond to injury. When the spinal cord is crushed or damaged, it sets off a toxic chain of events that kills the neurons and suppre.