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Genes that Promote Nerve Healing in Lampreys Discovered in Humans

The depths of the sea are riddled with mystifying wonders and bizarre ocean creatures. An invasive species, the prehistoric sea lamprey is one such creature. It has an eel-like body and corrosive suction sup mouth. It is a parasitic nuisance to the various aquatic regions it inhabits.

Some interesting facts about sea lampreys not only concern their hemotophagous feeding behaviours but also their overall biology.

These species can be fully cured from the severed spinal-cord without medication or any other treatment. They are able to move from paralysis to full swimming behaviours in ten to twelve weeks. It is long known that lampreys undergo spontaneous recovery from spinal cord injury but the molecular recipe which accompanies and supports this remarkable capacity is not known.

Now, a study by researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory and other institutions has found that many of the genes involved in natural repair of the injured spinal cord of the lamprey are also active in the repair of the peripheral nervous system in mammals.

“We found a large overlap with the hub of transcription factors that are driving regeneration in the mammalian peripheral nervous system,” Jennifer Morgan, the director of the MBL’s Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative

Biology and Tissue Engineering, said in a statement.

In order to locate the precise genetic changes that allow lamprey to make this amazing recovery, the researchers had to start by first paralyzing the animals, which they achieved by making an incision in their spinal cords.

The researchers then took samples from their brains and spinal cords, beginning hours after the injury and continuing over three months following. Those samples helped them identify what genes and signaling pathways — the proteins and other chemicals produced by cells to control their function — were activated in the injured animals. They found that many of the genes associated with spinal cord healing are part of the Wnt signaling pathway, which plays a role in tissue development. Future research will explore why the Wnt pathway seems particularly important in the healing process.

“This reinforces the idea that the brain changes a lot after a spinal cord injury,” said Jennifer Morgan. “Most people are thinking, ‘What can you do to treat the spinal cord itself?’ but our data really support the idea that there’s also a lot going on in the brain.”

One of the key findings of the study was that spinal cord injury in lampreys induces the expression of many transcripts that are associated with regeneration in the mammalian peripheral nervous system, and this highlights what the team calls “the power of this organism as a model for identifying and studying highly conserved, fundamental, pro-regenerative molecular pathways.”

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