There are many creatures that have the capacity to grow new limbs. These organisms are regarded as “lower organisms”, yet they share one ability beyond those of higher order mammals: the ability to regenerate tissue after injury.
It is a mystery why other animals, with similar genetic profiles, including humans, do not share this ability. For this reason some biologists have chosen to study the genetics of the organisms that can regenerate limbs in order to establish whether there are any clues as to how regenerative mechanisms might be activated in humans.
In terms of a small breakthroughs, one team of scientists, based at MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine (U.S.), have pinpointed a series of common genetic regulators (microRNAs) in three regenerative species. The three species, each of which can regenerate damaged body parts, are: the zebrafish, a common aquarium fish (from India); the axolotl, a salamander (from Mexico); and the bichir, a ray-finned fish (from Africa). The three species are separated by considerable geographic distances. Of these, the most widely studied has been the zebrafish.
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The three species share common genetic information. This suggests the ability to regenerate is not species specific but instead is something highly conserved, traceable back to a common ancestor. The implications of this informs a new hypothesis about the genetic mechanisms underlying limb regeneration. If humans contain the same genetic code, but in a form that is suppressed, then it may just be possible to develop new drugs to allow the regenerative processes to be activated.
At this stage, this remains a theoretical issue and more research would be needed to understand if the genetic basis for regeneration resides in humans.
The research has been published in the journal PLOS One, with the research paper titled “A Conserved MicroRNA Regulatory Circuit Is Differentially Controlled during Limb/Appendage Regeneration.”
