Salamanders’ immune systems are key to their remarkable
ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate
spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have
found.
In research published today in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences researchers from the Australian Regenerative
Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University found that when immune cells
known as macrophages were systemically removed, salamanders lost their ability
to regenerate a limb and instead formed scar tissue.