Study reveals a previously unknown ability of the brain to repair itself

Repeating the reporting on this since repetition may be the only way to get thru the thick heads in your stroke hospitals! Print this out and slap your doctor with it, asking when s/he will initiate research in humans to prove this out!

Do you prefer your doctor, hospital and board of director's incompetence NOT KNOWING? OR NOT DOING? Your choice; let them be incompetent or demand action!

 Study reveals a previously unknown ability of the brain to repair itself

The brain evidently can regenerate itself better than previously assumed after injuries or certain autoimmune diseases. Using a mouse model, researchers at the University of Zurich have demonstrated that special supporting and nourishing cells repopulate damaged areas of the brain by initially sending only newly formed cell nuclei there.

Glial cells are supporting and nourishing cells in the brain. Star-shaped glial cells called astrocytes are vital to the functioning of neurons. They supply the nerve cells with nutrients, help to regulate blood flow and keep brain tissue healthy. It had long been assumed that when astrocytes are lost – as happens, for instance, in brain injuries or autoimmune diseases such as rare neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, in which the body's own antibodies destroy these cells – the adult brain cannot fully replace them.

Regenerative astrocytes repair damaged tissue

A new study by co-lead authors Marina Herwerth and Matthias Wyss from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich (UZH) has now overturned that assumption: their research team headed by Bruno Weber discovered a specialized group of "regenerative" astrocytes in the brains of living mice that step in on the perimeter of the damaged area of the brain to rebuild the cells.

The findings of our study reveal a previously unknown ability of the adult brain to repair itself. They point toward new ways of supporting recovery from ailments involving the loss of astrocytes."

Bruno Weber, University of Zurich

Only cell nuclei migrate

The researchers used two-photon microscopy to observe the brains of living mice in real time over a period of several weeks and mapped which genes switch on in which areas of the brain. This way they were able to identify the special astrocytes that take care of rebuilding injured tissue. But those cells don't just divide, they also perform a remarkable feat: "they send the newly formed nuclei of their daughter cells gliding across long distances to repopulate the damaged area of the brain and knit the astrocyte network back together," Weber explains.

Starting points for targeted regeneration

The discovery of how adult brain cell nuclei migrate through the long star-shaped extensions of astrocytes to injured tissue expands comprehension of how the brain organizes and regenerates itself after certain injuries. If those mechanisms can be selectively activated, that could help to more effectively repair damaged brain tissue, restore astrocyte networks and thus improve recovery after certain brain disorders. "We were able to identify numerous genes and signaling pathways that are temporarily activated during repair. They could serve as starting points in the future for influencing post-disease and -injury regeneration processes," Weber stresses.

Source:

University of Zurich

Journal reference:

Herwerth, M., et al. (2026). Focal astrocyte loss reveals nuclear translocation during lesion repopulation. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02354-5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02354-5

Dartmouth researchers discover rare natural products that promote regeneration of injured nerve cells

We should be able to apply this to stroke rehab, we need such regeneration. But never mind, nothing will be done about this. Do you really think our researchers and stroke leaders are reading the Journal of the American Chemical Society?
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160122/Dartmouth-researchers-discover-rare-natural-products-that-promote-regeneration-of-injured-nerve-cells.aspx

Nerve damage from neurodegenerative disease and spinal cord injury has largely been considered irreversible, but Dartmouth researchers report progress in the effort to synthesize rare natural products that promote regeneration and growth of injured nerve cells.
The findings appear in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. A PDF is available on request.
Neurotrophins, or proteins that promote the development of neurons, have been investigated as potential therapeutic agents, but they have a variety of drawbacks. A group of small molecule natural products, however, possesses potent neurotrophic properties without some of the shortcomings of protein-based agents. Unfortunately, a source of suitable quantities of these substances to enable thorough medicinal exploration has yet to be identified. As such, the development of synthetic processes to generate molecules in this class (and related unnatural analogs) is critically important to establish science capable of fueling the discovery of therapeutic agents within the class. That said, many member of this natural product class boast very complex carbocyclic structures that have stood as substantial challenges to modern synthetic chemistry.

Now, Dartmouth researchers have discovered that one of their recently discovered chemical reactions is capable of delivering some of the most potent and rare members of this natural product class. Their pursuits resulted in the laboratory preparation of three neurotrophic natural products in the class and demonstrated the first application of their new carbocycle-forming reaction in natural product synthesis. In addition to these accomplishments, the researchers' study also led to the discovery of a new radical cascade reaction process that proved instrumental for completing their laboratory syntheses of these complex agents.
"Advances of this nature are critically important for defining a foundation of science necessary for advancing rare natural products as therapeutic agents," says co-author and principal investigator Glenn Micalizio, the New Hampshire Professor of Chemistry at Dartmouth College. "Simply stated, without a synthetic means to access such agents, development of therapeutics based on their structure would not be possible. While other syntheses of natural products within this class have recently been reported by others, our current achievement defines a unique synthesis pathway that could be employed to prepare synthetic analogs not easily accessed by others. Also, this marks the first successful application of our chemical method for hydrindane synthesis in the context of natural product synthesis."

Source:

Dartmouth College

BRAIN AND NERVE REGENERATION FOR STROKE

At 2:48 comes the answer to all our stroke problems.
Fresh organic in season fruits.
Why do we even need doctors or therapists?

BRAIN AND NERVE REGENERATION FOR STROKE

I just couldn't make it all the way through the 26 minutes. The woo was so thick it turned off my brain connections.

"Immortal" Jellyfish Swarm World's Oceans

So challenge your doctor how this kind of backward aging might be useful in putting neurons back to a more pliable state. If s/he can't think of any use of this, get a new doctor.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090130-immortal-jellyfish-swarm.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/02/there-is-a-species-of-jellyfish-that-can-age-backwards/

http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/11/immortal-jellyfish-can-reverse-aging.html

http://singularityhub.com/2011/04/25/immortal-jellyfish-provides-clues-for-regenerative-medicine/

Regenerative Neurogenesis from Neural Progenitor Cells Requires Injury-Induced Expression of Gata3

If zebrafish can regenerate neurons after injury study away.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1534580712004777

Summary

The adult zebrafish brain, unlike mammalian counterparts, can regenerate after injury owing to the neurogenic capacity of stem cells with radial glial character. We hypothesized that injury-induced regenerative programs might be turned on after injury in zebrafish brain and enable regenerative neurogenesis. Here we identify one such gene—the transcription factor gata3—which is expressed only after injury in different zebrafish organs. Gata3 is required for reactive proliferation of radial glia cells, subsequent regenerative neurogenesis, and migration of the newborn neurons. We found that these regeneration-specific roles of Gata3 are dependent on the injury because Gata3 overexpression in the unlesioned adult zebrafish brain is not sufficient to induce neurogenesis. Thus, gata3 acts as a specific injury-induced proregenerative factor that is essential for the regenerative capacity in vertebrates.