SEARCH FOR SCI CURE: New research reveals critical role scar tissue at injury site plays in recovery
Illustration of a nerve cell
We’ve known for a long time that at the site of every spinal cord injury, scar tissue forms that then acts as a barrier impeding the transmittal of signals from the brain, hence affecting the return of function. Depending on the amount of scarring, the amount of return would vary. But now, thanks to the brilliant work of Dr. Jerry Silver and his team at Case Western Reserve University Medical School, we know a lot more about the role the scar tissue plays in blocking nerves that are damaged through spinal injury from regenerating.
Dr. Jerry Silver
Nerve cells consist of elaborate long extensions (called axons) that grow out from the main cell body – it is these axons that make the connections called synapses with other nerve cells, and it is the axons within the spinal cord that are severed when the bony spine is impelled into the cord when it is violently broken. It was a huge surprise to the scientific community when they found that axons could, indeed, regrow robustly in the spinal cord and reach out quickly over long distances.
However, they also found that when the new axons reached the area of severe lesion damage and scarring, they stopped growing abruptly and started to deteriorate. The researchers suspected that there was some sort of chemical produced by the scar tissue around the break itself that was hostile to axons and stops even exuberantly growing new ones from extending further.