Immature nerve and muscle connections are stronger than we think
Jan 2011
Funded by 'Seedcorn' funding from the Euan MacDonald centre, recently published work by Lyndsay Murray, Laura Comley, Tom Gillingwater and Simon Parson shows that connections between nerve and muscle (neuromuscular junctions) are surprisingly resistant to a variety of insults and injuries, which adults are vulnerable to. This suggests that motor neurone diseases which affect the young, such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, cannot simply be attributed to a general vulnerability of the developing nervous system.
See full paper at FASEBJ - http://www.fasebj.org/content/early/2011/01/11/fj.10-171934.abstract
Image shows 'resistant/immature' and 'vulnerable/mature' neuromuscular junctions after nerve injury
