Axon Rebuilding

Unlike the neurons in the central nervous system (CNS), those outside the brain and spinal cord – the peripheral nervous system (PNS) – can regenerate their ‘electrical cable’-like fibres (axons) after injury. Understanding how this happens could be of huge benefit for treating a range of conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury and others in both the CNS and PNS. Researchers have now discovered in mice that the levels of a protein called RSK1 are higher after sciatic nerve injury. Forcing neurons to over-produce RSK1, caused an increase in two proteins called BDNF and IGF1 that helped regrow the neuron’s axon. Here we see a ‘normal’ neuron (top left) and longer neurons with increased levels of RSK1 (top middle and right). By inhibiting either BDNF (bottom left), IGF1 (bottom middle) or both (bottom right), the regrowth of the axons was impaired, suggesting RSK1 is essential for regeneration of these signal-transmitting projections.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

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• Image adapted from work by Susu Mao, Yuanyuan Chen and Wei Feng, and colleagues
• Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration of Jiangsu and Ministry of Education, NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Tissue Engineering Technology Products, Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong, China
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, June 2022