Even more fascinating than the fact that some animals can regenerate are the varying methods by which they do it. So why are we, as humans, so terrible at regeneration?
And a growing body of research into the molecular mechanisms behind regeneration seems to suggest that there’s no one-size-fits-all come-back.
, a professor of molecular mechanisms of regeneration at University of Massachusetts, Boston. They differ between vertebrates and invertebrates, but also among these categories too.Take the flatworm, for example, also known as Planarian and one of the most impressive examples of regeneration in the animal kingdom. These aquatic worms are invertebrates, and can completelypercent of themselves. If they’re beheaded, they can even grow their head back.
The Axolotl doesn't tap into its stem cell population though, instead, it uses a technique known as dedifferentiation. Once they’re injured, they grow a stub called the blastema from nearby undifferentiated cells.“What they do is they essentially turn the clock back in these old cells in their body to start to behave like embryonic cells, right, but they aren’t stem cells,” says McCusker.
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