(PhysOrg.com) -- In humans, regeneration of the peripheral
nervous system after injury remains a hit-or-miss affair, while
brain and spinal cord damage usually results in lifelong
disabilities. But by studying nerve injury in roundworms,
researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) have
revealed a different modality by which regeneration can occur
one that takes us a step closer to understanding how to promote
repair in the nervous system. Though damaged nerves reconnect in
a number of different ways, the underlying mechanisms remain
poorly understood, says Dr Brent Neumann, the postdoctoral
fellow who carried out the work in the laboratory of Dr Massimo
Hilliard. The research, published in the latest issue of
Developmental Dynamics, out this month, examines a process
called axonal fusion, which has been observed in crayfish,
earthworms, leeches and now in the roundworm Caenorhabditis
elegans (C. elegans). It offers a fundamentally different
mechanism for regeneration of axons (long structures that loo