Research Nerve Regeneration |
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| Nerve regeneration is a complex
phenomenon that has interested scientists for many years. The capacity for
axonal regeneration in nervous tissues is variable among vertebrate species. An
intriguing difference is observed when comparing the capacity to regenerate axons in the
central nervous system (CNS) versus the peripheral nervous system (PNS) of mammals. The mammalian PNS shows a well recognized ability to support axonal
regeneration, which is lacking in the mammalian CNS. An important medical consequence for humans is that pathological or traumatic damage to CNS nerve fibers results in permanent loss of function. In cold-blooded vertebrates, however, the CNS shows an axon regeneration response. Fish and amphibia have been used extensively to study the biochemistry of successful regeneration in the CNS. Several proteins involved in axonal regeneration have been identified and studied in these systems. Our research interest is to further investigate the biochemistry of nerve regeneration using the fish optic nerve system. With this objective, two proteins induced during optic nerve regeneration were recently cloned from goldfish and they showed significant homology to mammalian CNPases (named as RICH proteins for Regeneration Induced CNPase Homologs).
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 Graduate Student Wendy McCoyCNPases are myelin marker enzymes proposed to participate in membrane-
cytoskeleton interactions, but their function is not well defined yet. In vitro they show
phosphodiesterase activity, hydrolizing 2',3'-cyclic-nucleotide monophosphates to
2'-nucleotide monophosphate products. We recently demonstrated phosphodiesterase activity
for RICH proteins and were able to identify amino acids critical for this enzymatic
activity. We are currently studying the RICH proteins to try to understand their
biochemistry and their role in nerve
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Graduate
Student Ahmad Galal El Deen