Cells keep a memory of their tissue origin during axolotl limb regeneration

Martin Kragl, Dunja Knapp, Eugen Nacu, Shahryar Khattak, Malcolm Maden, Hans Henning Epperlein and Elly M. Tanaka ()
Additional contact information
Martin Kragl: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108,
Dunja Knapp: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108,
Eugen Nacu: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108,
Shahryar Khattak: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108,
Malcolm Maden: The Regeneration Project, McKnight Brian Institute, University of Florida, Rm 326 Bartram Hall, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA
Hans Henning Epperlein: Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstrasse 74,
Elly M. Tanaka: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108,

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7251, 60-65

Abstract: Abstract During limb regeneration adult tissue is converted into a zone of undifferentiated progenitors called the blastema that reforms the diverse tissues of the limb. Previous experiments have led to wide acceptance that limb tissues dedifferentiate to form pluripotent cells. Here we have reexamined this question using an integrated GFP transgene to track the major limb tissues during limb regeneration in the salamander Ambystoma mexicanum (the axolotl). Surprisingly, we find that each tissue produces progenitor cells with restricted potential. Therefore, the blastema is a heterogeneous collection of restricted progenitor cells. On the basis of these findings, we further demonstrate that positional identity is a cell-type-specific property of blastema cells, in which cartilage-derived blastema cells harbour positional identity but Schwann-derived cells do not. Our results show that the complex phenomenon of limb regeneration can be achieved without complete dedifferentiation to a pluripotent state, a conclusion with important implications for regenerative medicine.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08152 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:460:y:2009:i:7251:d:10.1038_nature08152

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08152

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().