Severed Worm Nerve Regrows

Researchers hope to learn how a worm rebuilds its nerves after the bundle of fibers that transport electricity between nerve cells are precisely cut with a laser.

In the roundworm C. elegans, one gene is responsible for one neuron. This allowed scientists to introduce a single gene into a single nerve cell and its axon so that it glowed neon green. Scientists were then able to see the nerve and use a laser to cut the electrical circuit.

The left image above is of the axon of the nerve cell before it is severed, and the right image shows the cut in the nerve cable after it was lased.

When a nerve cell cannot conduct electricity along its axon, it cannot work. By lasing the nerve bundle of the roundworm scientists disabled a muscle movement they could easily identify.

The animal repaired the connection and regained the use of its muscle movement. It is the simplicity of the animal that, according to researchers, makes it beneficial for studying how nerves regrow.

"This new capability of cutting individual nerves offers the opportunity to use the well-characterized genetics of C. elegans to study the basic mechanisms of nerve regeneration," said Yishi Jin, the primary investigator of the study.

The complete details of the study were reported in the Dec. 16 issue of the journal Nature.