Researchers Find Key Mechanism that Helps Salamanders Regrow Limbs

Researchers have identified one of the molecular pathways that help salamanders regrow their limbs. The research could help regenerate human organs too.

Salamanders can regrow the entire limb regardless of the number of times they are cut. The ability is unique because salamanders' limb has skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones. So, the creature is regrowing several types of tissues to make a limb.

According to researchers at the University College London, who conducted the present study, salamanders' ability to regrow the entire limb is due to "ERK pathway." This pathway needs to be constantly active to let salamander cells reprogram themselves.

Researchers said that the ERK pathway isn't fully active in mammal cells. But, when it is kept active in laboratory setting, then the cells have higher potential of reprogramming and, as a result, regenerating tissues.

The ERK pathway helps proteins on the cell's surface send signals to the nucleus of the cell. Further research could help researchers regrow human limbs too.

The study also explains why only some animals can regenerate body parts.

"While humans have limited regenerative abilities, other organisms, such as the salamander, are able to regenerate an impressive repertoire of complex structures including parts of their hearts, eyes, spinal cord, tails, and they are the only adult vertebrates able to regenerate full limbs," said Dr Max Yun from UCL Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology

"We're thrilled to have found a critical molecular pathway - the ERK pathway - that determines whether an adult cell is able to be reprogrammed and help the regeneration processes. Manipulating this mechanism could contribute to therapies directed at enhancing regenerative potential of human cells," Yun added in a news release.

Related research has shown that undifferentiated cells, which have the potential to become any kind of cells, accumulate at the site of injury in salamanders. These cells then regenerate the entire limb or organ.

Previous research had attributed this ability to immune system cells called macrophages.

The present study is published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.