![]() “This could have implications for central nervous system regeneration in humans if we can figure out the mechanism the worms use to regenerate.” “We share thousands of genes with these animals, and we have many, if not all, of the same genes they are using to regenerate their body structures,” said lead author Shawn Luttrell, a UW biology doctoral student based at Friday Harbor Laboratories. If scientists can unlock the genetic network responsible for this feat, they might be able to regrow limbs in humans through manipulating our own similar genetic heritage. Acorn worms burrow in the sand around coral reefs, but their ancestral relationship to chordates means they have a genetic makeup and body plan surprisingly similar to ours.Ī study led by the University of Washington and published in the December issue of the journal Developmental Dynamics has shown that acorn worms can regrow every major body part - including the head, nervous system and internal organs - from nothing after being sliced in half. Shawn Luttrell/University of WashingtonĪ new study of one of our closest invertebrate relatives, the acorn worm, reveals that this feat might one day be possible. The head is on the far left, and the worm will be cut in the middle. “This is a significant step toward future therapeutic and possibly lifesaving interventions in humans using stem cells.”Ĭollaborators from the University of Hawai‘i and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University also contributed to this research.An intact, live acorn worm. “We would like to address this question by continuing to study hemichordate regeneration and try to identify factors to reactivate pluripotent gene networks,” Tagawa said. Just why acorn worms can deploy their reprogramming factors to regenerate substantial parts of their bodies while vertebrates cannot remains a mystery. This functional overlap with higher-order vertebrates sets the stage for further investigation into the exact mechanisms of hemichordate regeneration, according to Tagawa. Reprogramming factors analogous to those released in vertebrates to signal tissue healing following an injury were found, usually first appearing in worm samples preserved 24-48 hours after being cut.Īlso Read: On an island laboratory, a scientist is drawn to the simple life In each experiment, the collected animals were cut at the posterior end of the branchial clefts. They then cut portions of the worms’ bodies and observed them in clean glass bowls throughout 12 days of regeneration, at which point the animals regained their natural burrowing behavior and could crawl out of the bowls. They sampled worms ranged from 4-10cm in length. The research team collected acorn worms from a flat shallow reef in Paiko, Oahu in Hawaii. “As such, this further illustrates how studying hemichordate regeneration is a promising new thread in the field of regeneration biology,” Tagawa said. Hemichordates do have a reprogramming gene network that allows cells to become pluripotent state in order to recreate an injured structure or organ. Being the most advanced of animals observed with regeneration capacity and more closely related to humans than planaria and hydra, acorn worms still uniquely share the ability with lower-order organisms to regenerate, however, they lack “totipotent stem cells” – individual cells from which the entire organism can completely regenerate. Scientists have observed the capacity of hemichordates such as planaria and hydra to regenerate since the 19th century, but only recently have used them as a model for studying regenerative processes. ![]() “The robustness of these pluripotent gene circuits in formation of induced stem cells from mammalian somatic cells shows that these programs are intact in humans and other mammals, and that these circuits may respond to as yet unknown gene regulatory signals.” ![]() “Based on these results, we propose that hemichordates may have co-opted these reprogramming factors for their extensive regeneration, or that chordates may have lost the ability to mobilize these factors in response to damage,” Tagawa said. Tagawa’s team observed several unique genes expressed in the acorn worms during head regeneration not seen in chordates and other higher-order vertebrates. “Since there are no known vertebrates able to regenerate their whole-body, better understanding how the acorn worm achieves this feat drawing on reprogramming gene networks could hold keys toward future advances in regenerative medicine for humans,” Tagawa said. In biology, reprogramming factors refer to molecules or proteins that can trigger cells to become any type of cells. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |