A new technique that uses a sticky chemical and a calcium solution may help severed nerve endings grow back together. It offers hope to the paralysed and others with nerve injuries.
Researchers say the technique has worked in a range of animals, from crayfish to guinea pigs.
They hope to test it in people soon. This new approach can almost certainly be used to rapidly rejoin cut or crushed axons. Sticky solution Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience, Bittner and colleagues say they applied a sticky solution of polyethylene glycol to the cut ends of nerve axons for a minute or two. The researchers washed this solution off and then soaked the nerve ends in calcium salt solutions that resemble natural body fluids. Within minutes, the nerves were transmitting signals again, they say.