Progress on the road to regenerating major body parts, salamander-style, could transform the treatment of amputations and major wounds
The gold standard for limb regeneration is the salamander, which can grow perfect replacements for lost body parts throughout its lifetime. Understanding how can provide a road map for human limb regeneration.
The early responses of tissues at an amputation site are not that different in salamanders and in humans, but eventually human tissues form a scar, whereas the salamander’s reactivate an embryonic development program to build a new limb.
Learning to control the human wound environment to trigger salamanderlike healing could make it possible to regenerate large body parts.
clipped from: www.sciam.com 