Epimorphic Regeneration Case Study

Many of us have all heard the saying that a “lizard can lose its tail,” and bizarrely enough it will grow back. This was always considered impossible for humans, an idea belonging in the realm of science fiction, but now the regeneration of tissue is an extremely realistic possibility. Despite some opinions, this process does not happen naturally, or take place as cinematically as one might imagine. Over the past decade, there have been major advances in regenerative medicine, commonly known as stem cell research. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells within the body that have the capability to specialize into any tissue. They are most commonly found in cord blood, bone marrow, organ donations, placenta, and embryos . Stem cells are seen by some as a new miracle treatment, encouraging many countries to invest in their research.

The areas of Michael's brain that were injured during his birth affected his control over his voluntary movements. Which part of the nervous system distributes motor commands to skeletal muscles?

The cervical spinal nerve C3-5 innervate the phrenic nerve. These are the lower motor neurons.

Describe two of the four varieties of grafts (autografts, isografts, allografts, and xenografts) and the steps taken to lessen graft rejections.

a) The structures and the afferent division of the peripheral nervous system that are involved in

Using Giemsa staining and immunofluorescent techniques to test the potential difference in cell fusions or muscular hypotrophy.

The stem cells that regenerate a frog tail and a salamander limb have very different properties of stem cells. In these animals, each tissue – such as muscle, nerve, or skin – has its own set of stem cells that just make the different types of cells in that particular tissue. In other words, a muscle stem cell cannot make skin and skin stem cells can’t make muscle. These multipotent tissue-specific stem cells are probably very similar to the stem cells in our own bodies that renew or repair tissues such as our skin or muscle. How do these regenerative animals regrow such complex structures? The answer may be closer than we

Longaker was able to prove that the fetal environment in which cells reside in does not necessarily contribute to wound regeneration as a transplant of adult sheep skin was placed into the dorsa of fetal lamb and scaring was still witnessed at the site of injury (Walmsley). The paper scrapes the very surface of what is known about scar regeneration, looking at the approaches that are currently available: pharmaceutical methods, genetic targets, and dermal substitutes. The genetic approach seems to be logical in terms of identifying what proteins creates scar tissue and selecting these candidates as ideal targets. One would inhibit them as to eliminate the formation of scar tissue. A question that comes up from what is described within molecular therapies for scarring is that studies that have been executed do not necessarily translate to humans. Dr. Longaker has shown that it is not exactly the fetal environment that gives way to tissue regeneration, but something else. If there are studies stating that certain animal pathways are not exactly parallel to those in humans, then that brings up the question that fetal environment could still possibly be an answer to scar regeneration. It is also ideal to

The planaria regenerated due to the huge amounts of stem cells in its body. The stem cells were able to help the planaria regenerate a head and grow to its original size. If the planaria did not have any stem cells, it would not have been able to regenerate and would have died after being its head was cut off. An experimental error that occurred was that one of the planaria died due to living conditions and was not able to completely

Of course in our body we don’t just have one type of cell. And not every cell goes through the same process by which it repairs itself. It could be a quick process, “during which the damaged or dead cells are replaced with cells of the same type” (Amerman, 2015) also known as regeneration. After this process the tissue is returned to a normal state. Tissues that are not able to go through regeneration go through a process called fibrosis. Fibrosis occurs when fibroblasts yield collagen. This collagen is then used to replace what was lost in the injury. One major difference between regeneration and fibrosis is that after fibrosis

Regenerative medicine is a game-changing area of medicine with the potential to fully heal damaged tissues and organs, offering solutions and hope for people who have conditions that today are beyond repair. Regenerative medicine itself isn't new — the first bone marrow and solid-organ transplants were done decades ago. But advances in developmental and cell biology, immunology, and other fields have unlocked new opportunities to refine existing regenerative therapies and develop novel ones. According to The Center for Regenerative Medicine takes three interrelated approaches. The first approach is the Rejuvenation. Rejuvenation means

Further support for the larval theory is that tiger salamander larvae are extremely hardy. Abe has amazing resilience to the environment and injury. Abe is shown to have suffered deep lacerations to the chest and possible infection from exposure to sewer water. Abe was placed in a recovery chamber, with no medicine or treatment administered, only his vitals were monitored. After several days in a deep sleep he was fully recovered with no visible scaring. This time frame is identical to a salamander recovering from a limb amputation. Within 6-12 hours, a plasma clot forms and epidermal cells from the amputation site migrate to the wound surface. During the next 4 days, proteases degrade the extracellular matrices of the tissues beneath the wound epidermis. The degradation process produces single cells that undergo dramatic dedifferentiation: reverting back to undifferentiated cells. To prevent differentiation of the newly formed crop of undifferentiated cells, genes expressed in differentiated tissue are downregulated, such as mrf4 and myf5 in muscle cells. Proliferative genes such as mslx are upregulated to help re-create the progress zone mesenchyme of the embryonic limb. Once enough cells have proliferated, they dedifferentiate to form the structure of the limb (or whichever area of the body they are

The major processes involved in central nervous system development are neural induction, neurogenesis, migration, axon guidance, and synaptic development/plasticity. Neural induction is the process by which the neural plate forms. Some of the regulatory mechanisms of neural plate formation are due to extrinsic signaling. The mesoderm, specifically, the notochord, sends signals to specific ectodermal cells. These signals cause the ectodermal cells to commit to becoming neural progenitor cells and form the neural plate. After the neural plate forms, the neural tube begins to form. This happens as the neural plate begins to fold. It separates from the rest of the ectoderm. The ends of the plates fuse, forming the neural tube.

The basic organization is split into five areas. These are the roots, trunks, divisions, cords, and terminal branches. The five roots originate from spinal nerves C5, C6, C7, C8, and T1. It is important to remember that these five areas contain both motor and sensory components. Next are the three trunks of the plexus. The roots of C5 and C6 combine to form the upper trunk, C7 continues on its own to form the middle trunk, and the lower trunk is formed by C8 and T1. Each trunk then divides into an anterior and posterior division. The divisions then combine to form cords. The anterior divisions of the upper and middle trunk combine to form the lateral cord, the anterior division of the lower trunk forms the medial cord, and all three posterior divisions combine to make the posterior cord. Finally, the cords give way to the terminal branches of the brachial plexus. The lateral cord splits and becomes the musculocutaneous nerve, and a

This is one of the reasons directionality of the cuts is explored. This experiment is similar to the experiment commented on by M. Kiang in the sense that he examines how when outside factors are favorable then regeneration factors will properly align to cause perfect symmetry (Kiang, 474). Another aspect of this experiment is the idea that the directionality of the cuts could have a deeper biological influence. For example, Amy Gavlik’s research includes how a delay in the regeneration of some planaria was due to the fact that necessary biological factors were not present in the side that was regenerating and needed to be moved from the rest of the body (Gavlik, 119). This is expanded upon in Alper’s research when he suggests that once a wound or amputation has occurred the biological factors necessary for regeneration are brought to that wound (Alper,