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Overexpression Of Sox11 Promotes Corticospinal Tract Regeneration After Spinal Injury While Interfering With Functional Recovery, Zimei Wang, Ashley Reynolds, Adam Kirry, Christopher Nienhaus, Murray G. Blackmore

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Embryonic neurons, peripheral neurons, and CNS neurons in zebrafish respond to axon injury by initiating pro-regenerative transcriptional programs that enable axons to extend, locate appropriate targets, and ultimately contribute to behavioral recovery. In contrast, many long-distance projection neurons in the adult mammalian CNS, notably corticospinal tract (CST) neurons, display a much lower regenerative capacity. To promote CNS repair, a long-standing goal has been to activate pro-regenerative mechanisms that are normally missing from injured CNS neurons. Sox11 is a transcription factor whose expression is common to a many types of regenerating neurons, but it is unknown whether suboptimal Sox11 expression contributes …