SSA could not be possible without the generous support of Drs. Herbert A. and Betty Lou Lubs and the Science, Society, and the Arts Research Conference Endowment. We are deeply grateful!
Amphibians, unlike mammals, retain their ability to regenerate optic nerve tissue upon injury. Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel, plays a role in optic nerve path-finding during early frog eye development. While preliminary data show piezo1 mRNA expression in eye retinoganglion cells is upregulated during the post-injury recovery period, the role of Piezo1 during nerve regeneration is unknown. Here we crush the right optic nerve of Xenopus laevis, harvest the optic nerves and eyes from 1 and 7 days post-surgery (dps), and determine Piezo1 expression levels in eye sections and in nerve sections near an injury site. If Peizo1 is involved in regrowth of nerve following injury, we expect to detect an increase in Piezo1 expression at 7dps compared to 1dps. These data would indicate involvement of path-finding mechanism similar to those that occur during development and would help fill the knowledge gap in understanding the underlying mechanisms of neural regeneration.
