The study of limb regeneration ability in mammals

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Molecular mechanisms underlying reconstruction of 3D structers during regeneration
• Project/Area Number: 22124006
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Biological Sciences
• Research Institution: Aichi Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: ENDO Tetsuya 愛知学院大学, 教養部, 准教授 (90399816)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 四肢再生 / 創傷治癒 / 骨折治癒 / 両生類 / 哺乳類 / 器官再生 / マクロファージ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To clarify the mechanism of limb regeneration that differs between mammals (non-regenerative) and amphibians (regenerative), responses to limb amputation were compared between mice and African clawed frogs. The frogs can form a regeneration blastema that eventually develops into a lost part of the amputated limb, although mice cannot. In mice, however, cartilaginous calluses are formed around the cut edge of the amputated bones in the limb stump; and the amputation surface is covered by the wound epidermis rapidly in certain conditions, both of which occur and are thought to be important for limb regeneration in amphibians. On the other hand, the wound epidermis is well-innervated in the frogs, but the one in mice is not. Since blastema formation is nerve-dependent, whether or not nerves can interact with the wound epidermis might be one of the key processes to separate successful nerve-dependent blastema formation in the frogs and failure in mice.

Free Research Field

発生生物学