Whenever lizards face threat to their life, they have a perfect escape plan that is to lose their tail and then re-grow it back. A team of 19 scientists from different countries across the world have studied the mechanism to figure out makes the tail re-grow in lizards.
There are animals like salamanders, frog tadpoles and fish that also have the ability to re-grow their tails, but at the tip. Researchers looked at the tail of the green anole lizard. The lizard has the ability to lose its tail in emergency and after around 25 days, the lizard gets its tail back.
Five lizards were taken and their tails were removed. Researchers sliced their tails into sections and noticed 326 genes in each section and every section was committed to re-grow the tail. Out of 326, 302 were similar to genes that mammals also possess.
Another surprising thing researchers noted was anoles' tails re-grow in a very different manner than the way they originally forms in the womb. Initially, the regeneration process is akin to a normal healing process.
The wound first closes up and then the tail heals. Epithelial tissues and new blood vessels start to form. After around 10 days, real re-growth happens in which nerve tissue starts forming inside the soft muscle tissue and the new tail is able to transport fluid. Around 20 days after the tail fell off, a type of cartilage forms and this cartilage segment then leads to tiny tail bones.
Researchers said this phenomenon is a bit different than what actually happens during the growth of small lizards. Lead researcher Prof. Kenro Kusumi said by studying the tail re-growth mechanism can help them discover novel treatments of a number of human diseases, injuries and birth defects.
"By following the genetic recipe for regeneration that is found in lizards, and then harnessing those same genes in human cells, it may be possible to re-grow new cartilage, muscle or even spinal cord in the future", said Kusumi.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1q1IRni
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