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A team of scientists from Maine believe that humans have an 'untapped' potential to regrow lost or injured body parts just like the salamanders. This behavior is characterized by a certain protein in amphibians that also exists in mammals.
A new study has suggested that humans may actually be able to regenerate certain body parts like limbs. Based on extensive analysis of a Mexican salamander called an axolotl that is a “champion of regeneration”, researchers from MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, believe that humans have the “untapped” ability to regrow body parts as well. Incredibly, the axolotl can regrow pretty much any lost body part including their brain, heart, lungs, ovaries, spinal cord, jaws, skin, tail, limbs, etc…
In their research, they focused on how the salamander doesn’t get a scar after an injury or heal in the same manner as mammals and mice. They determined that after an injury, macrophages (immune cells) created scars in a mouse but grew tissue cells in the salamander. The experts believe that the scarring tissue actually blocks the ability for regeneration.
Researchers are closer to unraveling the mystery of science behind regeneration
Many salamanders can readily regenerate a lost limb, but adult mammals, including humans, cannot. Why this is the case is a scientific mystery that has fascinated observers of the natural world for thousands of years.
Now, a team of scientists led by James Godwin, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has come a step closer to unraveling that mystery with the discovery of differences in molecular signaling that promote regeneration in the axolotl, a highly regenerative salamander, while blocking it in the adult mouse, which is a mammal with limited regenerative ability.
The mystery of why salamanders can regenerate a lost limb, but adult mammals cannot has fascinated observers for thousands of years. Now, a team of scientists led by James Godwin, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has come a step closer to unraveling that mystery with the discovery of differences in molecular signaling that promote regeneration in the axolotl, a highly regenerative salamander, while blocking it in the adult mouse.