Regenerative medicine is about understanding how cells, tissues and organs are formed and using that knowledge to rebuild tissues and help patients that have lost them through injury or disease. To do that, we can be inspired by nature’s experts in regeneration.
In the lakes of Mexico City lurks an animal that is naturally capable of things we can only dream of as humans. The axolotl (a type of salamander) can regenerate almost all of its body parts, including arms, legs, jaw, spinal cord and brain. What makes axolotls even more fascinating is that, biologically speaking, they aren’t that different from humans. We share many genes and cell types, like in the limbs and internal organs. In the Otsuki lab at the Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, we aim to better understand how axolotls regenerate.
Specifically, we study how axolotls regenerate their jaws and limbs. These are both skeleton-containing body parts with similar cell type composition, which makes them interesting to compare in regenerative studies. We study the cell types that are needed for regeneration, and the genes and molecules involved in this process. While limb and nervous system regeneration has been studied extensively in the last 100 years, jaw regeneration is still relatively uncharted, even among axolotl researchers.
By comparing our new findings in jaw regeneration to the process of limb regeneration, we hope to understand how these processes compare. If they prove similar between jaw and limb, maybe we will come closer to understanding some universal processes for body part regeneration. If jaw and limb regeneration prove to be vastly different processes, it will be interesting to see why such differences occur, and how we can learn from them to regenerate different human tissue types.
Looking at nature provides a springboard for future innovations in therapies for patients. Working with DRIVE-RM makes it possible for us to communicate and collaborate with scientists who can use their ethical, technological and/or clinical expertise to translate our findings into effective therapies. Major breakthroughs in science require a multidisciplinary approach, which means combining our strengths to ensure a better future for patients. I hope that together, we can catalyze this knowledge into safe and reliable regenerative therapies that will change the future.
