Neuron 64, 165–172 (2009)

With the right approach, spinal cord neurons can be coaxed to regenerate more than a year after spinal injury.

The strategy, identified by Mark Tuszynski of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues, involves a series of steps targeting cellular growth mechanisms and environmental obstacles that hinder neurons' ability to regenerate.

The researchers severed the spinal cord in rats and applied their complex combination therapy either six weeks or 15 months later. In both cases the long axons of sensory neurons grew across the lesion and beyond, although the number of regenerating axons and the distance they travelled fell over time.