Zeitschrift für Regenerative Medizin

Tissue Engineering Approaches for Motor Neuron Pathway Regeneration

Kurt Farrell and Chandrasekhar R. Kothapalli

Tissue Engineering Approaches for Motor Neuron Pathway Regeneration

During fetal development, a tightly-regulated spatio-temporal pattern of guidance cues directs and maintains motor neuron axonal growth along specific pathways to reach the target cells and tissues. However, an inflammatory environment resulting from an injury (e.g., trauma, stroke) or disease [e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), and hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP)] leads to progressive degeneration of motor neurons and destruction of axonal tracts in the adult CNS.