Now that we know that these barriers can be overcome, we can try to apply this type of technique more widely in other brain and spinal-cord injuries.
Nerves comprise the highway on which chemical messages travel to and from the brain.
The neurological highway can repair itself if the damage occurs before the nerve reaches the spinal cord, the relay center that passes nerve information on to the brain. But when nerves are pulled out of their moorings in the spinal cord, or when the spinal cord itself is damaged, paralysis can result. It turns out that the body itself erects chemical barriers to thwart nerves attempting to reconnect. Dr. Matthew Ramer and Dr. Stephen McMahon of the Neuroscience Research Centre at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine in London began their study by crushing the sensory nerves of mice. Motor nerves, which control movement, were not damaged.