Sodium gets a bad rap for contributing to hypertension and
cardiovascular disease. Now biologists at Tufts University's
School of Arts and Sciences have discovered that sodium also
plays a key role in initiating a regenerative response after
severe injury. The Tufts scientists have found a way to
regenerate injured spinal cord and muscle by using small
molecule drugs to trigger an influx of sodium ions into injured
cells. The approach breaks new ground in the field of
biomedicine because it requires no gene therapy; can be
administered after an injury has occurred and even after the
wound has healed over; and is bioelectric, rather than
chemically based. In a paper appearing as the cover story of the
September 29, 2010, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the
Tufts team reported that a localised increase in sodium ions was
necessary for young Xenopus laevis tadpoles to regenerate their
tails - complex appendages containing spinal cord, muscle and
other tissue. Like human beings, who regenerate fingertips on