Regeneration of damaged nerves

Figure 14. FKBP ligands that have been shown to promote regeneration of damaged nerves in vivo.

Ding, T., Luo, Z.J., Zheng, Y, Hu, X.Y, Ye, Z.X., 2010. Rapid repair and regeneration of damaged rabbit sciatic nerves by tissue-engineered scaffold made from nano-sUver and collagen type I. Injury 41, 522-527. 

The molecular and cellular events during Wallerian degeneration in the peripheral nervous system transform the damaged nerve into an environment that supports regeneration. First, the cut axon degenerates distal to the injury site and, within 18-48 hours, cytoskel-etal disintegration of axonal neurofilaments and microtubules occurs, which is due to proteases such as calpains... 

Adhesion molecules such as LI, neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) and N-cadherin promote axonal regeneration by homophilic interactions between axons and Schwann cell surfaces (see Ch. 7). The expression of p75 (low affinity NGF receptor, Ch. 27) is also increased at the Schwann cell surface after injury. Extracellular matrix molecules, such as tenascin and proteoglycans, increase the regenerative potential of damaged peripheral nerves by binding to integrins on the axonal surface. 

Following the discovery that nonimmunosuppressive immunophilin ligands retained the neurotrophic properties of FK506, a number of compounds have been evaluated for efficacy in several animal models of neurodegenerative disorders. FK506 had already been shown to promote recovery of damaged peripheral nerves several reports now detail the ability of compounds in Tables 4 and 5 to promote regeneration of both central and peripheral neurons. 

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