Could the cells in these simple worms point towards a mechanism for regeneration of organs in humans? Considerable, non technical article with links to more .....
Flatworms muscle new eyes' wiring into their brains
Peter Reddien's lab at the Whitehead Institute takes a step forward in understanding how neural circuits could be regenerated in adults.
Eva Frederick | Whitehead Institute
If anything happens to the eyes of the tiny, freshwater-dwelling planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, they can grow them back within just a few days. How they do this is a scientific conundrum — one that Peter Reddien's lab at Whitehead Institute has been studying for years.
The lab's latest project offers some insight: in a paper published in Science June 26, researchers in Reddien's lab have identified a new type of cell that likely serves as a guidepost to help route axons from the eyes to the brain as the worms complete the difficult task of regrowing their neural circuitry.
Schmidtea mediterranea's eyes are composed of light-capturing photoreceptor neurons connected to the brain with long, spindly processes called axons. They use their eyes to respond to light to help navigate their environment. ....
This study is a step forward in a body of work that aims to expand the capabilities of regenerative medicine. “Imagine a scenario where someone experiences a spinal cord injury or an eye injury or stroke that leads to the loss of a neural circuit,” says Atabay. “The reason we can't fully cure these cases today is that we lack fundamental information regarding how these systems can regenerate. Looking at regenerative organisms provides a lot of insights. From this case, we see that regenerating the lost system may not be enough; you may also need to regenerate systems that are properly patterning that system.” ... '
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