Regrowing nerves

[Eulogy]

Is there any way to encourage the formation of new/more nerves?

For example, methods to help a burn victim get back feeling in his or her affected skin, or growing more tastebuds.

[Patrick Degan]

These are among the many questions being targeted for exploration by stem-cell research.

[SeeingRed]

There are many ways to do this. All are at various stages of research/laboratory development; I'm not aware of any major clinical trials of nerve regeneration technology. Nerves in e.g. the spinal column (i think) have been "regrown" to some degree in rats, however.

On inorganic substrates, people are fairly good at being able to achieve directed nerve/neuron growth, and to a somewhat lesser extent getting glial cells to grow such that they support the newly formed nerve structures. The latter is one of the major hurdles in achieving nerve regeneration in vivo.

If you want some papers on this subject, do let me know.

[Aaron]

Is there any way to encourage the formation of new/more nerves?

For example, methods to help a burn victim get back feeling in his or her affected skin, or growing more tastebuds.

Nerves in burned skin do grow back, although very slowly. The nerves in my arm and feet grew back after suffering fourth degree burns eight years ago. It took about six years total for the nerves in my arm to grow back. I believe the neuro surgeon told me that nerves grow at about a micro-metre a day. Anything that would speed up this process would of course be a boon and have my full support and doubtless the full support of the medical community.