Nerve cross-bridging to enhance nerve regeneration in a rat model of delayed nerve repair.

There are currently no available options to promote nerve regeneration through chronically denervated distal nerve stumps. Here we used a rat model of delayed nerve repair asking of prior insertion of side-to-side cross-bridges between a donor tibial (TIB) nerve and a recipient denervated common peroneal (CP) nerve stump ameliorates poor nerve regeneration. First, numbers of retrogradely-labelled TIB neurons that grew axons into the nerve stump within three months, increased with the size of the perineurial windows opened in the TIB and CP nerves.

Cdx1 interacts physically with a subset of Hox proteins.

Cdx and Hox gene families encode homeodomain-containing transcription factors involved in anterior-posterior vertebral patterning. Although Cdx proteins are direct transcriptional regulators of Hox gene expression, both Hox and Cdx proteins are known to interact with other homeodomain transcription factors, leading us to speculate that Cdx and Hox proteins may also interact physically. In testing this, we found that that Cdx1 is indeed capable of associating with a subset of Hox proteins.