Dissolving sugar helps nerve regeneration

Nerve regeneration after brain or spinal cord injury can be improved by dissolving the sugar chains found on the inhibitory protein molecules that fill the scar tissue. Neuroscientists at the Brain Repair Centre in Cambridge have discovered that by using a bacterial enzyme to dissolve the sugar they can significantly improve the regeneration of neurones (Nature Neuroscience 2001;4:465-6).

One of the reasons that neurones do not grow back after an acute injury is that the glial cell scar tissue becomes full of inhibitory molecules called chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans. …