You might be interested in a breakthrough in previously unrecognized 
growth factor that stimulates regeneration of injured nerve fibers … or axons … in the central nervous system.
Seems that researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered a naturally occurring growth factor that stimulates regeneration of injured nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord and eye… which until now have not yielded keys to re-grow after injury… The previously unrecognized growth factor, called oncomodulin, is described in the May 14 online edition of Nature Neuroscience.
When oncomodulin was added to retinal nerve cells in a Petri dish, with known growth-promoting factors already present, axon growth nearly doubled. No other growth factor was as potent.
Dr. Benowitz, the study’s senior investigator, concluded that oncomodulin could someday prove useful in reversing optic-nerve damage caused by glaucoma, tumors or traumatic injury.
By accident they found a molecule that causes more nerve regeneration than anything else ever studied.
One more puzzle piece has been added to this exciting era of research in nerve regeneration…
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