Autoimmunity and central nervous system regeneration in urodele amphibians

Spinal cord lesion in newt is followed by complete cell and fibre regeneration. Previous observations showed that the presence of a granuloma due to a foreign substance (talcum) in the vicinity of the cut spinal cord slows down and/or prevents regeneration. The present experiments, while confirming previous evidence, show that, in animals with a paraspinal granuloma or a subcutaneous granuloma containing an autoplastic and homoplastic spinal cord implant, immunocomplexes appear on the cut ends as has been observed by the same authors in animals in which spinal cord regeneration does not occur (Mammals). The authors discuss the results in view of their theory of the autoimmune nature of the absence of axonal regeneration.