Hello everyone and welcome back to a new week of learning something new about salamanders.
Have you ever got into a fight and hurt a part of your body and just wanted it to fall off? Don’t you wish you could just cut it off and it could grow back in a few days? Studies have shown that salamanders can regrow entire limbs and also regenerate certain parts of major organs. But how can they do this? Why can’t we as humans do this?
http://www.californiaherps.com/behavior/salamanderlifehistorydefense.html
Well in salamanders it all has to deal with the rearranging of cells at the wound site. There are several phases that the missing part of the salamander goes through. When the limb is first lost the epidermal cells go towards the open flesh to cover it.
An epidermal cell is a cell in the basal layer of the epidermis, and it produces melanin. Over the course of a few days, the epidermal cells begin to thicken and form an apical epithelial cap. The epithelial cap covers the fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are a type of cell that produces collagen and other fibers. Once enough fibroblasts are created a blastema develops. Once the blastema is formed, blood vessels begin to regenerate onto it. Different genetic codes are found in the blastema as well to determine exactly what limb needs to be regrown. So what does all of this stuff mean?
In a nutshell, a salamanders immune system at a young age is a huge deal. If they don’t have macrophages, then they won’t be able to regrow their limbs.
Check out this cool video of a salamander growing back its leg!!!
(https://youtu.be/qD1K7BoWVC8?t=57s)
References:
- https://animals.howstuffworks.com/amphibians/salamander-regrow-body-parts1.htm
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-salamanders-can-regrow-tails-lizards-cant
- https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/09/new-insight-how-salamanders-regrow-limbs
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23690624