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Limbs Regrow Without Pluripotency

from the Scientist (Registration Required)

The cells responsible for the salamander's famed ability to regenerate amputated limbs aren't pluripotent, as scientists have thought, a study published online in Nature reports.

That's good news for regenerative medicine: If the mechanism salamander cells use for regrowing body parts doesn't depend on pluripotent stem cells, it may be easier than researchers have assumed to mimic that organism's regenerative strategy in potential therapies.

"This is a very important finding for this field and also for regenerative medicine in general," said regeneration biologist Andras Simon of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who was not involved in the research.