An interesting thing is that the fin can regenerate. Epithelial cells are the first type of cells to cover the wound and then other cells differentiate into the fin structures.
It also regenerate its heart. The implications are great. If we can induce pluripotency in differentiated cells. then we can induce regeneration in heart cells, especially in humans. But first, we need to understand the molecular cascades that are responsible for regeneration.
The beauty of biology is that the cascades to achieve an effect are similar. Consequently, when we deduce how regeneration is induced in the heart. It will make regeneration of nerve cells relatively simpler.
There is an interesting paper that looked at heart regeneration. They genetically ablated muscle cells. This is really impressive because there is no injury induced on the surrounding cells, as seen in lesions. This increases the specificity of the ablation. They also labeled the surrounding cells, in order to trace the origin of the regenerated cells. Regeneration was observed by fluorescence and electrophysiology.
They should experiment genetic ablation in mammals, to see whether it would induce a slight regeneration. I think KO experiment of known genes should be done in conjunction with the ablation studies to determine which genes are responsible or influence regeneration.
Review: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952513001133
Primary paper: http://dev.biologists.org/content/138/16/3421
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| Rapid regeneration of ventricular cardiomyocytes after ablation-induced injury. Figure obtained from http://dev.biologists.org/content/138/16/3421 |
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