US EditionScientists Studying Axolotls in Hopes of Learning How to Regrow Limbs
- Professor James Monaghan and his team at Northeastern University published a study on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, revealing how axolotls regenerate limbs using retinoic acid signaling.
- They investigated axolotls because these aquatic salamanders can regrow limbs quickly, and understanding this process could help humans regrow body parts in the future.
- Monaghan’s team used genetically engineered glowing axolotls to trace how retinoic acid acts as a signal to fibroblasts, which control regeneration and determine the limb's size and shape.
- Monaghan stated that they identified specific enzymes responsible for degrading retinoic acid, which allows for controlled limb regeneration without resulting in extra limb growth.
- The findings mark significant progress toward regenerative medicine, suggesting future therapies might activate similar biological programs to regrow human limbs or heal wounds without scarring.
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Retinoic acid breakdown is required for proximodistal positional identity during axolotl limb regeneration
Regenerating limbs retain their proximodistal (PD) positional identity following amputation. This positional identity is genetically encoded by PD patterning genes that instruct blastema cells to regenerate the appropriate PD limb segment. Retinoic acid (RA) is known to specify proximal limb identity, but how RA signaling levels are established in the blastema is unknown. Here, we show that RA breakdown via CYP26B1 is essential for determining R…
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