# Regeneration-permissive glia after spinal cord injury

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $422,125

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Limited regeneration of central nervous system (CNS) axons is a major barrier to recovery after CNS injury.
Major advances have been made in identifying neuron-intrinsic mechanisms to promote axonal growth, but
regenerating axons still require an environment that is growth-permissive. Although the astroglial scar has been
considered to be a major inhibitory barrier to axon regeneration, there is mounting evidence that in certain
conditions, reactive astrocytes may aid, rather than inhibit, regeneration of axons across the injury site. One
possible explanation that might reconcile these conflicting roles of the astroglial scar is that there are astrocyte
subpopulations that can inhibit, and other subpopulations that can permit, axon regeneration. One potential
source of these regeneration-permissive astrocytes is oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), which we and
others have shown can differentiate into astrocytes after spinal cord injury (SCI). Since this differentiation
capacity is limited to about 10-20% of OPCs in the glial scar region, we hypothesize that enhancing the number
of OPC-derived astrocytes can enhance axon regeneration by increasing the amount of regeneration-permissive
substrate across the injured spinal cord.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10286370
- **Project number:** 1R21NS123492-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jae K Lee
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $422,125
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10286370

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10286370, Regeneration-permissive glia after spinal cord injury (1R21NS123492-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10286370. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*