Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Physiology and pathophysiology of nerve fibres
- Part II Pain
- Part III Control of central nervous system output
- Part IV Development, survival, regeneration and death
- 36 Axonal growth and plasticity in the adult nervous system
- 37 Target dependence of motoneurones
- 38 Rescue of neurones cross-regenerated into foreign targets
- 39 Development and repair of neonatal mammalian spinal cord in culture
- 40 Selective neuronal vulnerability in motor neurone diseases with reference to sparing of Onuf's nucleus
- 41 Excitotoxicity in motor neurone diseases
- Index
39 - Development and repair of neonatal mammalian spinal cord in culture
from Part IV - Development, survival, regeneration and death
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Physiology and pathophysiology of nerve fibres
- Part II Pain
- Part III Control of central nervous system output
- Part IV Development, survival, regeneration and death
- 36 Axonal growth and plasticity in the adult nervous system
- 37 Target dependence of motoneurones
- 38 Rescue of neurones cross-regenerated into foreign targets
- 39 Development and repair of neonatal mammalian spinal cord in culture
- 40 Selective neuronal vulnerability in motor neurone diseases with reference to sparing of Onuf's nucleus
- 41 Excitotoxicity in motor neurone diseases
- Index
Summary
Introduction
There are several lines of evidence to suggest that the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) might regenerate better after a lesion in an embryo than in an adult. For one thing the environment is favourable for neurite outgrowth since the CNS is still forming and intrinsic growth programmes are still in effect. For another, inhibitory factors in extracellular fluid or associated with membranes would probably not have developed at early stages (Björklund, 1991; Schwab, 1991).
It was Norman Saunders, then at Southampton, now in Tasmania, who introduced the South American Opossum, Monodelphis domestica (Fig. 39.1), as a valuable preparation for physiological studies of development to our laboratory at the Biocenter in 1989. He with Kjeld Møllgard (at Copenhagen) had used this animal to great advantage for studies of cortical development and blood–brain barrier (Saunders et al., 1989). What makes the animal so useful? Firstly, it is about the size of a small rat so it can be bred in the laboratory more easily than a kangaroo or a North American Opossum. Secondly, the pups, 2–12 in number, are born at an immature stage corresponding to a 15-day-old rat embryo with no cortex or higher functions. The newborn animal is virtually decerebrate. For example, the cerebellum only starts to cover the fourth ventricle at about 4 days. Yet, the pups can breathe and suck.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Neurobiology of DiseaseContributions from Neuroscience to Clinical Neurology, pp. 405 - 410Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996