BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Unblocking axonal regeneration

November 5, 2009 8:00 AM UTC

For nearly 20 years it has been known that growth-inhibitory molecules called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans, or CSPGs, are a major impediment to axonal regeneration at sites of CNS injury. However, blocking CSPG signaling to promote regeneration has proven difficult because the receptor has eluded identification. A team at Harvard Medical School and Case Western Reserve University has found the receptor1-and it turns out to be one that other groups have shown inhibits axon regeneration (see "Blocking growth inhibition in spinal cord injury").

To find the CSPGs' receptor, Harvard researchers led by John Flanagan, a professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, started from the fact that his work had previously shown that the heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) regulate synapse formation in Drosophila by binding a family of neuronal receptors called protein tyrosine phosphatases.2...