This is one of the fascinating topics in neuroscience, and there is a lot of research going on, because we wish that they could be regenerating. So the word regenerate is referring to something that has existed, so generated, and then something happened. They may be degenerated, so they lose their features and then function. What we want is for them to come back, and gain that function again.
This is actually an event in which most of our cells are able to do, they kind of can divide themselves with mitosis, and the dysfunctional one, or the damaged cell, dies out and disappears. The healthy cell divides itself and then gives a new one. So, this is kind of for regeneration, it could be. There is another type of regeneration we can think of is that, let’s say part of the cell is damaged, and the cell is only repairing that damaged part. So, that could be a regeneration as well. This is in our body we observe.
In most of the tissues when it comes to the brain, it’s a bit hard and tricky, and it’s evolved in a way that the neurons are not able to divide themselves anymore, so they don’t go through mitosis after they become a mature neuron. So this is sad, of course, because when we have a damage in the brain, it means like we lost neurons, and then they are not going to come back. So, this is why we end up having certain diseases. But it might be kind of understandable why it is not. Because if we think about mitosis, cell division, you know, cells will stop their function, and then replicate the DNA and divide. This means that a cell is suspending whatever the function they are doing for a certain time. I think this is understandable why neurons might not like that, because it means part of our brain will be suspended. So, then they can divide themselves. So if you think that they’re able to do mitosis. So that could be actually also negative for the body, because you know these are the problems that we can’t tolerate neurons not functioning. So maybe this is why it’s evolved in that way.
But still, you know, it could be quite nice, and it could be a treatment for certain diseases. If we are able to see that regeneration. But in the brain, there are other cells apart from neurons that are, for example, glia, which are the supporting cells for neurons. They are able to divide themselves. There are other types of cells, so they can divide themselves. So, it is the neurons that we don’t see cell division. There is a lot of research that we are trying to trigger in case of damages. When we have neuronal loss, maybe for that type of situation, we can trigger regeneration.
So there is a lot of research going on, but what we observe in neurons, let’s say so a neuron has a cell body. Imagine like it’s my hand, and then the axonal part, it’s like my arm. If these axonal parts are damaged, we observe that the neuron is able to regenerate that damaged axonal part. So, they can kind of create a new axon, or they can repair the damaged products, one that we observed a little bit. What we don’t observe is the full neuron kind of dividing, and renewing itself. But still partial axonal repair is also regeneration.
So, the answer is, yes, there are cases that we can see regeneration, but not fully in neurons. There are other types of brain cells that we can see fully, renewal and repair. That will be my answer.
