Identification of key genes involved in recovery from spinal cord injury in adult zebrafish

This study investigates spinal cord injury recovery in zebrafish, focusing on the subacute phase, which is critical for neurological function recovery involving tissue bridging and axon regeneration. The researchers identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during this phase, concentrated in biological processes such as respiratory chain, axon regeneration, and cell-component morphogenesis. The study verified the gene expression of clasp2 (up-regulation) and h1m (down-regulation), suggesting their potential as therapeutic targets for spinal cord injury repair by neuroregeneration.

• 1
  Zebrafish spontaneously recovered 44% of their swimming ability within the subacute phase (2 weeks) after spinal cord injury.
• 2
  Identified 7762 differentially expressed genes in spinal cord tissue: 2950 were up-regulated and 4812 were down-regulated.
• 3
  RT-qPCR results verified that clasp2 is up-regulated (1.46 times, P < 0.05) and h1m is down-regulated (0.46 times, P < 0.001) after SCI.