In some organisms, damage to one body part can trigger healing in another area. Recent findings indicate that this whole-body response isn’t a side effect: it’s the main feature. A mouse injured on one leg experiences an “awakening” of stem cells in the other leg as if the cells are preparing to he
When an injury occurs in many organisms, a whole-body response is triggered, possibly aiding in healing and regeneration; this is seen in mice, axolotls, zebrafish, and planarian worms.
“In many different organisms, you can see the whole body respond to an injury. But whether or not those responses actually have any function has been unclear,” says Bo Wang, assistant professor of bioengineering at, Wang and his colleagues have found that this whole-body coordination is a crucial part of wound healing and subsequent tissue regeneration in planarian worms.
Understanding what turns regeneration on and off could lead to advances in medical treatments and interventions, including implications related to cancer. Credit: The Wang Lab / Stanford Engineering The signal was fast enough to aid in healing, but they still didn’t know if the whole body was involved.Voting to grow
“This implies there’s kind of a global body voting system that says, ‘Okay, now we should grow something,’ and everybody has to agree,” says Wang. And even the cells furthest away get a vote.Many animals – like planarians, sea stars, and axolotls – exhibit healing and regenerative ability far beyond that of humans. Understanding why we lack such abilities could lead to advances in medical treatments and interventions, including implications related to cancer.
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