Salamanders' Ability to Regenerate Lost Limbs Could Help Treat Severe Wounds

For humans, regenerating lost body parts is impossible, although cracking salamanders' cellular code could help treat severe wounds.

Essentially, salamanders are unique creatures. If one of these amphibians loses a single finger, it's growing back, a Phys.org report specified.

Furthermore, if one could chop away a single piece of the heart or spinal cord, it would regenerate. Possibly, most impressively, these animals can even regrow a leg that a hungry predator bit off.

One of the most popular salamander species is the axolotl, also called Ambystoma mexicanum, in lakes close to Mexico City.

'Axolotl"

The axolotl is considered as the salamanders' "Peter Pan." Even the 30-centimeter-long reproductive adults maintain features of their youthful stage throughout their lifespan.

Moreover, the prominent gills protruding from the back of its head are maintained from the larval phase of the axolotl. The fact that it's never leaving the water throughout its life is extraordinary for an amphibian.

Axolotls were allied as such, taken from the Aztec god of fire, Xolotl, who, according to legend, distinguished himself as a salamander to prevent being offered as a sacrifice.

To date, scientists are investigating axolotls in their laboratories because of their outstanding ability to regrow one limb or even two.

Regenerating Limbs

According to Professor Elly Tanaka, from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, who has investigated salamanders for nearly 20 years, he is fascinated by how limbs regenerate.

Tanaka's lab focuses on the unique axolotl species, although all salamanders humans have examined appear to regenerate limbs, she explained.

As part of the RegGeneMems project, Prof Tanaka is attempting to solve the mystery behind how molecules are commanding cells inside the injured axolotl to develop and move, restoring a whole limb in the right size and proportion.

The regeneration is plausible as far as the shoulder and occurs as if the animal was first growing a limb.

While it stays within science fiction for a person to regrow an arm or a leg, researchers believe that salamanders can provide an understanding of how patient inquiries might be better addressed.

Tanaka said when they lose a limb or even two limbs, they remain pretty mobile because they can swim around using their tail.

Formation of Blastema

The professor also said that the lesson from the salamanders is that one uses very much the same molecular machinery done during the limb's development.

With lessons from the axolotl, added Tanaka, "we could boost our injury-repair kit. Once an axolotl gets lost, a blood clot forms in the wound area.

Skin cells are moving to cover the wound within one day. Then, the tissues beneath begin to rearrange, first forming a jumbled mass of cells called blastema that appears to lack any organization.

A blastema is a mass of undifferentiated cells with the capacity to transform into an organ or appendage. It is specifically essential in severe limbs.

In the wounds of humans, scar tissue is formed by fibroblasts, glue-like cells. In salamanders, something amazing takes place within weeks. Such cells take a step back in time to turn less specialized.

They are regaining adequate flexibility to turn into bone, tendon, ligament, or cartilage. Then, they shoot each other signals that direct the missing body's reconstruction from the stump, developing an exact replicate.

Cells and Tissues from a 'Confused Jumble'

Recently, according to a similar Modern Diplomacy report, Tanaka discovered how some crucial signals are helping with the arrangement of cells and tissues from what appears to be a "confused jumble.

She also found that the cells in the regenerating tissue coming from the thumb side of the limb begin producing different signals compared to cells from the pinky-finger side.

Related information about salamander limb regeneration is shown on Biointeractive's YouTube video below:

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