Regenerating Stroke Damage

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ScienCentral reports on a potential method of regenerating damage caused by a stroke: "In the developing systems of young people and other animals, the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of around ten billion nerve cells, have the ability to spontaneously grow new nerve cell connections. ... We know that adults have the same capacity to re-grow, it's just that they're being stopped from re-growing ... Nogo-A is one of the major inhibitors to new growth, there are others but, Nogo appears to be one of the major ones ... In tests on stroke-damaged rats Kartje and her research team used a very specific antibody, an immune-system protein, to stop Nogo-A from binding to receptors on nerve cells. Without the inhibitory affect of Nogo-A, the injured nerve cells were able to re-grow, restoring lost movement to the front paws of the rats."

Link: http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392726