Axolotls, with their signature smiles and pink gills, are the celebrities of the salamander world. Now, they’re more than just cute. The might also hold the secret to scar-free wound healing and regeneration of human limbs. Axolotls are famous for their remarkable regenerative abilities that allow them to regrow entire limbs and even organs. Now, Northeastern University has begun to uncover the secret behind the axolotl's superpower and how it could be used to advance human regenerative medicine. “It could help with scar-free wound healing but also something even more ambitious, like growing back an entire finger,” said Professor James Monaghan, who is leading the research. Researchers are unraveling how the axolotl knows what body part to grow back. If it loses a hand, how does it know to grow back a hand as opposed to an entire arm? Understanding the signal for regeneration is a major step toward applying these lessons to humans. Monaghan believes if we can find ways of making our bodies listen to regenerative cues, they’ll do the rest. “In order for regenerative biology or regenerative medicine to move forward, we need to understand where positional memory lies and how to manipulate it and engineer it,” he said. Retinoic acid could be the key to the axolotl’s incredible ability to know which limb to regrow where, and Monaghan and his researchers are working to make that a reality for the human body.
