Neurologically Effective Nerve Growths in the Mammalian Brain: Recent Work of Tsukahara and Kawaguchi

Abstract

Until recently it was generally believed that all the embryonic know-how had been lost in the mammalian post-natal period so that there was no regeneration of the mammalian brain and spinal cord after injury. But now we have the encouraging prospect arising from well-designed experiments that there is a considerable regenerative capacity in several regions of the mammalian brain, even in adults. Optimistically, one can predict that we are only at the beginning of an enterprise in which various surgical procedures plus rehabilitation therapy, with, for example, local administration of nerve growth factors, will be able to reduce some of the disabilities suffered by patients with lesions of the brain and spinal cord. Some experiments of Tsukahara and Kawaguchi have been selected for review because they have demonstrated not only the histological evidence of regeneration, but also that it is functionally effective.