A mouse that can regenerate its tissues
February 5, 2004 | Source: KurzweilAI
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the University of Rome have found a way to mobilize stem cells to achieve a major regeneration of damaged tissue.
The scientists investigated muscle tissue in mice, discovering that stem cells can travel large distances to reach an injury. They also found a special form of a protein called mIGF-1 induces the muscle to send the distress signal that summons them.
They created a strain of mouse whose muscle cells continue to produce mIGF-1 throughout its lifetime. “If there’s an injury, muscles expressing mIGF-1 send out a very loud signal, and stem cells respond from quite far away,” said Nadia Rosenthal, Coordinator of EMBL’s Mouse Program. “After birth, most animals lose the signal, which may be one of the key reasons that our tissues don’t regenerate as quickly when we age.”
The result is a high level of muscle regeneration, which doesn’t happen in normal mice that have stopped producing IGF-1. Muscle regeneration can also be boosted in aging mice or animals with a form of muscular dystrophy, whose muscles are undergoing steady deterioration. Stem cells are recruited to the tissue and can significantly reverse the process.