Scientists Explore Regrowth of Optic Nerves as Potential Treatment for Glaucoma

University of Connecticut scientists have published a report in the September issue of Experimental Neurology, showing injured optic nerves can regrow towards the brain if treated properly.

Blunt trauma to the optic nerve from car crashes and accidents can lead to blindness. Glaucoma can cause similar damage to the optic nerve and is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Loss of vision from blunt trauma and glaucoma is usually permanent, as severed nerves rarely grow back.

But recent findings by UConn School of Medicine neuroscientist Ephraim Trakhtenberg and members of his lab including Agnieszka Lukomska (now a professor at the University of Warsaw), Bruce Rheaume (currently a physician-resident at Dartmouth Medical Center), and PhD candidate Matthew Frost have spread hope that the nerve damage can be reversed. Using an injectable peptide—a small piece of a larger protein—the team managed to get nerve cells in the severed optic nerves of mice to regrow from the damaged area all the way to the optic chiasm in the brain. The optic chiasm senses light and controls daily body rhythms. It is the first place in the brain the optic nerve touches.

It took the severed nerve cells about 6 weeks to regrow to the optic chiasm. It’s unknown how much further they would have grown if the experiment had gone on longer.

Read the full University of Connecticut news article here.