Nerve in Biological News

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

Amsterdam, 21 July 2009 - In the July issue of Biomaterials , published by Elsevier, researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) report on the first lab-grown motor nerves that are insulated and organized just like they are in the human body. The model system will drastically improv...

Crustacean shell with polyester creates mixed-fiber material for nerve repair

In the clothing industry it's common to mix natural and synthetic fibers. Take cotton and add polyester to make clothing that's soft, breathable and wrinkle free. Now researchers at the University of Washington are using the same principle for biomedical applications. Mixing chitosan, found in ...

Peripheral nerve repair with fat precursor cells led to wider nerves and less muscle atrophy

Tampa, Fla. (June 16, 2009) To determine if guided fat (adipose) precursor cells (APCs) could improve nerve regeneration and functional recovery, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) used biodegradable nerve guides to transplant APCs into the injured peripheral nerves of laboratory r...

Long-lasting nerve block could change pain management

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have developed a slow-release anesthetic drug-delivery system that could potentially revolutionize treatment of pain during and after surgery, and may also have a large impact on chronic pain management. In NIH-funded work, they used specially designed fat...

Spun-sugar fibers spawn sweet technique for nerve repair

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique using spun-sugar filaments to create a scaffold of tiny synthetic tubes that might serve as conduits to regenerate nerves severed in accidents or blood vessels damaged by disease. The sugar filaments are coated w...

Motor nerve targeting to limb muscles is controlled by ephrin proteins

Montral, December 24, 2008 A study from a team of researchers including Dr. Artur Kania, Director of the Neural Circuit Development Research Unit at the IRCM, and Dr. Dayana Krawchuk, postdoctoral fellow, shows how a family of proteins present in the developing limb control nerve targeting from t...

Shared survival mechanism explains why 'good' nerve cells last and 'bad' cancer cells flourish

CHAPEL HILL Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The study published in the December issue of Nature Cell Biology ...

UC Davis team refines cancer treatments to reduce potential nerve damage

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) While radiation treatments deliver precise doses of high-energy X-rays to stop cancer cells from spreading or to shrink tumors, oncologists have become increasingly concerned about inadvertent exposures during head and neck cancer treatments to nerves responsible for upper bo...

Mammals can be stimulated to regrow damaged inner retina nerve cells

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have reported for the first time that mammals can be stimulated to regrow inner nerve cells in their damaged retinas. Located in the back of the eye, the retina's role in vision is to convert light into nerve impulses to the brain. The findings o...

In the war against diseases, nerve cells need their armor

In a new study, researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University, and the Universit de Montral have discovered an essential mechanism for the maintenance of the normal structure of myelin, the protective covering that insulates and supports nerve cells (neurons). Up unti...

Duke team finds compounds that prevent nerve damage

DURHAM, N.C. Duke University Medical Center scientists have made a significant finding that could lead to better drugs for several degenerative diseases including Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Compounds that block the activity of a specific enzyme prevented brain injury and greatl...

A second career for a growth factor receptor: keeping nerve axons on target

LA JOLLA, CA Neurons constituting the optic nerve wire up to the brain in a highly dynamic way. Cell bodies in the developing retina sprout processes, called axons, which extend toward visual centers in the brain, lured by attractive cues and making U-turns when they take the wrong path. How they...

Antidepressants need new nerve cells to be effective, UT Southwestern researchers find

DALLAS Aug. 28, 2008 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in mice that the brain must create new nerve cells for either exercise or antidepressants to reduce depression-like behavior. In addition, the researchers found that antidepressants and exercise use the same bi...

UT Southwestern researchers create molecule that nudges nerve stem cells to mature

DALLAS June 15, 2008 Inspired by a chance discovery during another experiment, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have created a small molecule that stimulates nerve stem cells to begin maturing into nerve cells in culture. This finding might someday allow a person's own nerve stem...

Engineer develops detergent to promote peripheral nerve healing

AUSTIN, Texas A detergent solution developed at The University of Texas at Austin that treats donor nerve grafts to circumvent an immune rejection response has been used to create acellular nerve grafts now used successfully in hospitals around the country. Research also shows early promise of the...

Tumor-targeting viral therapy slows neuroblastoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors

CINCINNATI Researchers in a multi-institutional study led by Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center slowed the growth of two particularly stubborn solid tumor cancers neuroblastoma and peripheral nerve sheath tumors without harming healthy tissues by inserting instructions to inhibit tissue...

Salk scientists identify key nerve navigation pathway

LA JOLLA, CA Newly launched nerve cells in a growing embryo must chart their course to distant destinations, and many of the means they use to navigate have yet to surface. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Neuron, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies hav...

West Nile virus' spread through nerve cells linked to serious complication

Oct. 18, 2007 -- Scientists believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Utah State University showed that West Nile virus can enter a nerve cell, replicate an...

Targeting nerve growth factor may cure liver cancer

Nerve growth factor (NGF), as the name says, is an essential peptide factor for the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells. Therefore we can imagine that this growth factor is important for the nervous system including brain. But a recent scientific report published in the October 7 issue of...

Specific brain protein required for nerve cell connections to form and function

CHAPEL HILL Neurons, or nerve cells, communicate with each other through contact points called synapses. When these connections are damaged, communication breaks down, causing the messages that would normally help our feet push our bike pedals or our mind locate our car keys to fall short. Now...

Gene therapy delivery of nerve growth factors reverses erectile dysfunction in animal model

Rats with erectile dysfunction, or ED, that were injected with a gene therapy vector containing either of two nerve growth factors were able to regain normal function after four weeks, according to a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers. These findings are bei...

Growing nerve cells in 3-D dramatically affects gene expression

When it comes to growing cells in a lab, technique matters. A new Brown University study shows that nerve cells grown in three-dimensional cultures use 1,766 genes differently compared to nerve cells grown in standard two-dimensional petri dishes. The study, published in the May issue of Tiss...

Researchers develop marker that identifies energy-producing centers in nerve cells

A protein that causes coral to glow is helping researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine to light up brain cells that are critical for the proper functioning of the central nervous system. This fluorescent marker protein may shed light on brain cell defects believed to play a rol...

Penn study on olfactory nerve cells shows why we smell better when we sniff

Unlike most of our sensory systems that detect only one type of stimuli, our sense of smell works double duty, detecting both chemical and mechanical stimuli to improve how we smell, according to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience. ...

Researchers discover gene crucial for nerve cell insulation

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered how a defect in a single master gene disrupts the process by which several genes interact to create myelin, a fatty coating that covers nerve cells and increases the speed and reliability of their electrical signals. The dis...

Pregnancy hormone key to repairing nerve cell damage

The mystery of why multiple sclerosis (MS) tends to go into remission while women are pregnant may be the secret to overcoming the devastating neurodegenerative disease, according to University of Calgary researchers who have shown that a pregnancy-related hormone is responsible for rebuilding the ...

Dopamine used to prompt nerve tissue to regrow

When Yadong Wang, a chemist by training, first ventured into nerve regeneration two years ago, he didn't know that his peers would have considered him crazy. His idea was simple: Because neural circuits use electrical signals often conducted by neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) to communica...

Two nerve cells in direct contact

Movements in space create in humans and animals so-called optical flow fields which are characteristic for the movement in question. In a forward movement, the objects flow by laterally, objects at the front increase in size and objects further away hardly change at all. At a higher level in the vi...

Diabetes slows nerve recovery after heart transplant

Diabetes has a detrimental effect on a person's ability to recover from a heart transplant, notes a study in the September Journal of Nuclear Medicine. "Using positron emission tomography (PET) and the transplanted heart as a very specific model to study the regenerative capacity of the heart's ...

Molecular structure reveals how botulinum toxin attaches to nerve cells

WHAT: Botulism is a life-threatening disease caused by exposure to botulinum neurotoxins, which are among the most potent toxins known. These neurotoxins are produced by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium found in soil and food. In the body, the toxins bind to and enter neurons, interfering with ne...

When nerve cells can't make contact

Using an animal model, brain researchers in Göttingen have examined the effects of mutations that cause autism in humans. These are mutations in the genes which carry the building instructions for proteins in the neuroligin family. The study published in the scientific journal Neuron (September 21,...

Nanotubes used for first time to send signals to nerve cells

Texas scientists have added one more trick to the amazing repertoire of carbon nanotubes -- the ability to carry electrical signals to nerve cells. Nanotubes, tiny hollow carbon filaments about one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, are already famed as one of the most versatile materia...

Increased sensitivity to nerve signals keeps diabetes at bay

Nerve signals relayed directly to the pancreas after eating a meal play a critical role in normal blood sugar control, according to a report in the June 7, 2006, Cell Metabolism. Therefore, drugs that increase the sensitivity to such signals might offer a new approach to diabetes treatment, the res...

New roles for growth factors: Enticing nerve cells to muscles

During embryonic development, nerve cells hesitantly extend tentacle-like protrusions called axons that sniff their way through a labyrinth of attractive and repulsive chemical cues that guide them to their target. While several recent studies discovered molecules that repel motor neuron axons f...

Think fast! Rice undergrad unlocks nerve speed secret

In the second it takes you to read these words, tens of thousands of vesicles in your optic nerves are released in sequence, opening tiny surface pores to pass chemical signals to the next cell down the line, telling your brain what you're seeing and your eyes where to move. Thanks to two new studi...

Ritalin packs punch by elevating norepinephrine, suppressing nerve signal transmissions

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) elevates norepinephrine levels in the brains of rats to help focus attention while suppressing nerve signal transmissions in the sensory pathways to make it easier to block out extraneous stimuli, a Philadelphia research team has found. Their report in the Journal of Neu...

Trial success for diabetic nerve therapy

A potentially ground-breaking treatment for nerve damage caused by diabetes has shown promising results in preclinical and early patient trials. The University of Manchester team has discovered that injection of a novel therapeutic that works by stimulating a person's genes may prevent nerve dama...

Protein receptor cools passion of 'kiss and run' nerve cells

A new subtlety in the process of how the body's nervous system relays information may hinge on how "wet" the "kiss" is when one neuron fires a packet of neurotransmitter across a synapse to a receptive nerve cell. A team of neuroscientists led by University of Illinois at Chicago biology professo...

High-resolution light microscope reveals the fundamental mechanisms of nerve communication

In a simultaneous publication (Science Express, 13th April 2006), STED microscopy revealed the spatial distribution of the bruchpilot protein and aided neurobiologists from the European Neuroscience Institute and the University of Würzburgin understanding the protein's central role in the formation...

U of MN researchers develop way to visualize synchronized interactions of nerve cells in the brain

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center have discovered a new way to assess how brain networks act together. Work funded by the MIND Institute (New Mexico) led Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., professor ...