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INJURING an already damaged eye can help it heal, a remarkable study
suggests. When the optic nerve is damaged in adult mammals, its cells cannot
regenerate lost connections and soon die. But now, Larry Benowitz of the
Children’s Hospital in Boston and his colleagues have shown that a small
puncture to the eye’s lens in rats with an optic nerve injury actually increases
cell survival and stimulates nerve regrowth at least 100-fold (The Journal
of Neuroscience, vol 20, p 4615). They found that the puncture attracts
immune cells. “These seem to be pumping out factors that are very good…