Geoffrey Raisman obituary
In 1969 Geoffrey Raisman, who has died aged 77, introduced the term "plasticity" to describe the ability of damaged nerve tissue to form new synaptic connections. He discovered that damaged nerves in the central nervous system (CNS) could be repaired and developed the theory that white matter (nerve fibres and supporting cells) is like a pathway - when it is disrupted by injury, such as spinal cord injury, growth of the regenerating fibres is blocked.
In 1985 he described how olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) "open doors" for newly formed nerve fibres in the nose to enter the CNS. Believing that reconstruction of the damaged pathway is essential to repair of the injured CNS and using the unique door-opening capability of OECs, in 1997, together with colleagues, Geoffrey showed that transplantation of OECs into the damaged spinal cord in experimental models repairs the damaged pathway and results in the regeneration of severed nerve fibres and the restoration of lost functions.
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