Rinako
Suetsugu-Maki, Nobuyasu Maki, Kenta Nakamura, Saulius
Sumanas, Jie Zhu, Katia Del Rio-Tsonis and Panagiotis A
Tsonis
For
all author emails, please log on.
BMC
Biology 2012, 10:103 doi:10.1186/1741-7007-10-103
Published:
17 December 2012
Abstract
(provisional)
Background
Among
vertebrates lens regeneration is most pronounced in newts, which have the
ability to regenerate the entire lens throughout their lives. Regeneration
occurs from the dorsal iris by transdifferentiation of the pigment epithelial
cells. Interestingly, the ventral iris never contributes to regeneration. Frogs
have limited lens regeneration capacity elicited from the cornea during
pre-metamorphic stages. The axolotl is another salamander which, like the newt,
regenerates its limbs or its tail with the spinal cord, but up
until now all reports have shown that it does not regenerate the
lens.
Results
Here
we present a detailed analysis during different stages of axolotl development,
and we show that despite previous beliefs the axolotl does regenerate the lens,
however, only during a limited time after hatching. We have found that starting
at stage 44 (forelimb bud stage) lens regeneration is possible for nearly two
weeks. Regeneration occurs from the iris but, in contrast to the newt,
regeneration can be elicited from either the dorsal or the ventral iris and,
occasionally, even from both in the same eye. Similar studies in the zebra fish
concluded that lens regeneration is not possible.
Conclusions
Regeneration
of the lens is possible in the axolotl, but differs from both frogs and newts.
Thus the axolotl iris provides a novel and more plastic strategy for lens
regeneration.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!