Humans have ‘untapped’ ability to regenerate body parts?

...researchers just published a new paper in the journal Developmental Dynamics that focuses on the differences between mammals and a very special species of salamander called the axolotl.

Axolotls are severe endangered in the wild but they still exist in captivity. They’re incredible creatures with the unique ability to regenerate a wide range of body parts. Sure, some salamanders and other lizards and amphibians are capable of regenerating something like a tail, but the axolotl takes that ability and turns it up to the extreme. Axolotls are capable of regenerating a tail, leg, and skin, but they’re also able to grow new lungs, ovaries, spinal cords, and even a fresh brain or heart if needed.

In studying what happens to a wound on a molecular level in both axolotls and mice, which are mammals that don’t possess such robust regenerative abilities, the scientists discovered something very interesting. They found that the immune cells that trigger a response after an injury, called macrophages, are the critical link to exploiting an animal’s ability to regrow body parts. More specifically, Godwin demonstrated that when an axolotl had too few of these immune cells to react to an injury, a missing body part couldn’t be regrown and a scar appeared instead. In mice as well as humans, macrophages trigger scarring rather than regeneration, but it may be possible to change that...

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