Regulating Astrocytes via Short Fibers for Spinal Cord Repair (Adv. Sci. 41/2024)

Spinal Cord Repair Reactive astrogliosis is the main cause of secondary injury to the central nervous system. Therefore, inhibiting reactive astrogliosis and maintaining their spatial homeostasis is crucial for creating a microenvironment conducive to neuronal regeneration. In article 2406742, Yiming Lu, Juan Wang, Wenguo Cui, and coworkers establish a mouse compression spinal cord injury model and analyze the primary mechanisms and action targets of reactive astrocytes by RNA‐Seq technique. The short fibers could effectively downregulated the expression of VIM gene in astrocytes by modulating the “ECM receptor interaction” pathway, inhibiting the transcription of downstream Vimentin protein, and thereby effectively suppressing reactive astrogliosis, and consequently promoted the recovery of spinal cord neural function. [Image: see text]