To reduce the extensive scarring, we performed a partial optic nerve transection in young adults, leaving a portion of the nerve uninjured.
This approach indeed limited scar formation, and it allowed regenerating axons to reach the brain and reinnervate their targets. ✅
Don't miss this amazing meeting in Austria!!! Deadline to register is May 20, 2026!
#EMBORegeneration2026
📚Take-home message: Axonal regeneration is more than growth. It’s also about the cellular environment.
Want to find out more? doi.org/10.3389/fnin...
🚨Paper Alert!
Check out our latest work, now published in @FrontiersNeuroscience. We show how this remarkable fish surprisingly displays mammalian-like injury responses after optic nerve transection.
🔗 doi.org/10.3389/fnin...
@JulieDeSchutter @StevenBergmans @lucamasin.bsky.social @AnyiZhang
Even more intriguing: the retinal ganglion cells in killifish retain their intrinsic growth potential. 🧐
However, instead of navigating towards the brain, they misdirect and loop within the retina (yellow arrowheads).
Why does this happen? 🔎 A gliofibrotic scar forms at the injury site, an injury response typically associated with mammals.
So the axons keep growing, but they physically and chemically can’t overcome the barrier. The result: permanent vision loss.
Adult killifish — both young and old — fail to reinnervate their brain target after complete optic nerve transection. 🐠🧠👁️
This is surprising, as most teleost fish are able to fully restore neural circuitry and regain visual function after this type of injury.
A new preprint from our lab is out! 🥳 Congrats to Anyi Zhang and @lucamasin.bsky.social for this great paper titled: Repressed mTORC1 signaling and transient dendritic pruning support axonal regeneration! Grateful for the fruitful collaboration with the @filodelbene.bsky.social and Poulain labs!
With transcriptomic and functional data, @lucamasin.bsky.social et al. @labmoons.bsky.social show that local glycolysis supports injury-induced axonal regeneration. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
📕 In Cellular Neurobiology collection: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...
#SfN25
Journal of Cell Biology
The registration deadline for #EMBORegeneration2026 is approaching: May 20 !!! Don't miss this amazing meeting on the banks of the Danube in Austria: meetings.embo.org/event/26-tis...
Adult mammals exhibit limited regenerative capacity in the central nervous system (CNS), leading to irreversible deficits following injury or disease. Effect...
Adult mammals exhibit limited regenerative capacity in the central nervous system (CNS), leading to irreversible deficits following injury or disease. Effect...
🚨New preprint out!🚨
I’m excited to share the latest work by Anyi Zhang and me, which shows that mTORC1-dependent transient dendritic pruning is essential for efficient axonal regeneration in spontaneously regenerating zebrafish neurons.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
