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Eye for Growth: New protein prompts optic nerve regrowth

By Christen Brownlee

- More than 2 years ago

A protein recently isolated from white blood cells could offer a new way to repair nerve cells damaged by injury or disease.

GROW FOR IT. A newly discovered protein called oncomodulin prompts injured rat-nerve cells to regrow significantly farther (top) toward the right than did cells not getting the protein (bottom). Benowitz

Like most neurons in the central nervous system, those that form the bundle that connects each eye to the brain don’t regrow their long, spindly axons, which carry electrical signals, if they become injured.