Animals' regenerative abilities open up opportunities for human medicine

(Dan Tri) - Many animal species have the ability to regenerate and restore lost parts, which has inspired scientists to find new methods to treat human diseases.

Most mammals do not have the ability to regenerate and recover as quickly as fish, amphibians, reptiles or worms…

After injury, some flatworms, fish or lizards can regenerate almost every cell in their bodies, for example, the Mexican axolotl can regenerate an entire lost limb and part of its brain, a lizard can grow a new tail or a zebrafish can regenerate a damaged spinal cord...

Scientists have focused on the regenerative abilities of animals in an attempt to find treatments for humans at the cellular level, thanks to advances in genetic engineering or cell structure…

Several research groups presented their latest findings at the International Society for Stem Cell Research conference in Hong Kong last week, offering ideas for treating human diseases based on the regenerative abilities of animals.

The regenerative potential of zebrafish spinal cord

A zebrafish with a severed spinal cord can go from being paralyzed to moving smoothly and fully recovering after eight weeks, according to Dr. Mayssa Mokalled, an expert in tissue regeneration and stem cell biology, and colleagues at the University of Washington, Missouri (USA).

Zebrafish have the ability to regenerate damaged spinal cords (Photo: Britannica).

Accordingly, Mayssa Mokalled and colleagues discovered a group of cells in zebrafish that play an important role in the recovery process and these cells are similar to the astroglial cells of human fetuses.

These astroglial cells may be involved in the repair and regeneration of human brain tissue after injury, as well as play an important role in the formation and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier, which helps control which substances are allowed to enter the brain, protecting the brain from harmful substances.

In their studies, Dr. Mayssa Mokalled's team transplanted modified human astroglial cells into mice, and these cells were more effective at creating a protective barrier for the brain.

“I would love to see this translated into a human therapy,” Dr. Mokalled commented, but admitted that this is still early research.

The lizard's ability to regrow its tail

Dr. Mayssa Mokalled's research is still in its infancy, and the evolutionary gap between zebrafish and humans is huge.

Stem cell biologist Albert Almada and colleagues at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) have studied the tail regeneration ability of the green lizard Anolis.

Albert Almada said lizards and humans share many similar genes, so the team hopes to find treatments that mimic the process of regrowing tails in lizards.

Green Anolis lizards have similar genes to humans (Photo: iNaturalist).

At the conference, Almada described how a group of stem cells was responsible for regenerating the tail of the Anolis lizard. These cells are similar to those found in mice and humans, except that the lizards have the ability to generate muscle tissue from scratch to regenerate a lost tail, something humans and mice cannot do.

Still, Almada hopes to figure out how lizard cells work during tail regeneration, which could be applied to treatments for human muscle-related diseases such as age-related muscular degeneration or to help wounds heal more quickly.

The super-fast recovery ability of marine bristle worms

Florian Raible, a stem cell biologist at the University of Vienna (Austria), is studying the super-recovery ability of another animal, the marine bristle worm, scientific name Platynereis dumerilii.

The special thing about the marine ciliate worm is that it has the ability to regenerate very well when it is young, but gradually loses the ability when it reaches adulthood due to hormonal changes.

“This is a model that shows both good regeneration and poor regeneration in the same organism,” Florian Raible shared.

Sea ciliates have the ability to regenerate damaged bodies at super speed (Photo: CNRS).

In their experiments, Raible and colleagues severed the bodies of bristle worms and found that some of the cells left near the wound would turn into stem cells and begin regenerating the body, including nerve cells.

The nervous system of the ciliated worm has similarities to the central nervous system of vertebrates, leading scientists to hope that it can help find solutions to treat spinal cord injuries in humans.

Scientists also hope that studies of sea ciliates can help them find a way to regenerate stem cells from adult human tissue.

“There is now a big effort to study the super-healing abilities of animals and see how we can translate those findings,” Albert Almada shares.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/kha-nang-tai-tao-cua-dong-vat-mo-ra-co-hoi-chua-benh-cho-con-nguoi-20250626025239694.htm