If you have ever tried to capture a lizard, you have surely seen how by grabbing them by their tails they get rid of them by themselves and, after a few days, they have another fully regenerated one. The ability to regenerate body parts , from bones or muscles to entire limbs, is common in crustaceans, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. However, did you know that there is also a mammal capable of doing the same?
These are mice, specifically two species of African spiny mouse – Acomys kempi and Acomys percivali – which have highly brittle skin that tears easily. Getting rid of it helps them escape when they are captured or fall into the jaws of one of their predators. But, in addition, the surprising thing is that later they have the ability to heal these wounds in a similar way to how lizards recover their tails.
Unlike common laboratory mice, which undergo a common healing process, these African spiny mice self-regenerate hair follicles, sweat glands, skin, and even cartilage as if nothing had happened. They are, in fact, the only mammal known so far that has this characteristic. However, Ashley Seifert , a developmental biologist at the University of Florida at Gainesville, who led the study that uncovered this finding, explains that these mice are unlikely to have developed a completely novel method of causing tissue growth. . It seems to be, rather, that the genes responsible for regeneration that salamanders or lizards have activated, are turned off in mammals, but it is as if they had turned on again in the little bodies of these small rodents.
And, if so, it would be very good news, since it would make it possible to try to extrapolate it to humans to be able to address some of the diseases and help improve wound healing , according to Jeremy Brockes , researcher of the regeneration of limbs in newts at University College London. And it is that regenerative medicine has made great advances in the last decade, with laboratory bladders, stem cells and other regenerated human organs, in part thanks to the investigation of the genetic circuits that humans share, effectively, with flies, salamanders and mice.
