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Nerves are made up of bundled axons, the long connections between neurons, and so regeneration following injury involves new axons finding their way across the area of damage as they regrow, a process hampered in mammalian species by the formation of scar tissues. The antibody NG101 has long been known to promote regrowth of nerve tissue following damage. It has been a long road from the initial discovery a few decades ago to a recent clinical trial in patients with spinal cord injury. That trial allowed more data to be gathered on the regeneration process via imaging approaches, and researchers made use of the opportunity to examine in more detail as to how NG101 enhances regeneration in humans. Unlike animal studies where histology and dissection of nerve tissue is possible, human studies must rely on imaging, and those imaging techniques must be developed as trials progress.
