A Tiny Surprise in Regards to Regeneration (A Guest Post)

By Jessica Klein

The ability to regenerate limbs and tails is nothing new to reptiles and amphibians. Many lizards are able to drop their tails to escape an enemy, whereas salamanders have been known to grow back entire legs with muscle after being attacked by a predator. These regenerative characteristics have been seen to some extent in rabbits and pika before 2012, but were later discovered to occur extensively in, surprisingly enough, small African spiny mice.

One of the African spiny mouse species. Photo by Ashley Seifert and Tom Gawriluk.

In a study done by Ashley W. Seifert and Megan G. Seifert at the University of Kentucky, Todd M. Palmer and Malcolm Maden at the University of Florida, Stephen G. Kiama at the University of Nairobi, and Jacob R. Goheen at the University of Wyoming, African spiny mice were studied in order to view the extent of their regenerative properties, why they might occur, and the physiological processes that make it happen.

The rodents were captured in Kenya, where researchers learned that vigorous movement during handling caused the skin of African spiny mice to come apart. One mouse was reported to have an open wound that took up 60% of its back, just from being handled! Therefore, Dr. Seifert measured the amount of strength it took to tear the skin of spiny mice using something called a Hounsfield tensometer. He took the measurements from that tool and graphed them on a plot, creating something called a stress-strain curve which showed how much strength it took to tear the skin of the mouse.

The strength measurements revealed that the skin of these species was 77 times weaker than average mice, explaining why their skin tore so easily during the handling process. In order for the African spiny mice to survive such large injuries due to their extremely fragile skin, it would be beneficial to heal quickly or regenerate the skin. This is exactly what Dr. Seifert discovered.

An African spiny mouse shows
the regenerative process with
(1) being before the wound
(2) being after the wound and
(3) showing how the wound was
completely healed after 30 days.
Figure from Seifert, et al., 2012.

After the strength measurements were completed, the rodents were anaesthetized and had 4mm and 1.5cm wounds made on their skin, as well as 4mm holes punched in their ears in order to view the regeneration process. In an average rodent, the repair of a 4mm skin wound takes around 5 to 7 days and is accompanied by a significant amount of scarring. However, in the African spiny mouse it only took 1 to 2 days for scabbing of the skin wound to occur with new cells forming on the outside of the wound to repair it. After just 10 days, the ear of the mouse was fully healed. In the ear punches, there were no signs of scarring that would have been expected in a rodent, and healthy cartilage had formed. By the 21st day of the experiment, African spiny mice had developed new hair follicles and healthy new hair covering the once wounded area. In total, Dr. Seifert discovered that African spiny mice were capable of regenerating their skin, hair follicles, and sweat glands.

Dr. Seifert suggested the skin of African spiny mice is fragile because it allows them to escape predators. This would require a quick healing time to reduce the chance of infection and ultimately death in the mouse after escaping. This is why they may have gained the ability to regenerate their skin, but how exactly does this happen? Dr. Seifert and his research team recently showed that, in these species, it occurs through a process known as epimorphic regeneration. This is when a blastema (a mass of immature, unspecialized cells) forms where the wound once was. These cells are capable of turning into whatever type of tissue was present in that area. This particular method of regeneration is how salamanders are capable of regenerating their limbs. Again, more research would need to be done in order to confirm or deny this. However, one thing is true, and that is that more research into this could prove to be useful in the future of medicine when it comes to healing critical and invasive injuries. By discovering the physiological process behind this, and then being able to replicate it in a lab, researchers may discover ways to heal injuries faster.

Works Cited

Seifert, Ashley W., Stephen G. Kiama, Megan G. Seifert, Jacob R. Goheen, Todd M. Palmer, and Malcolm Maden. "Skin Shedding and Tissue Regeneration in African Spiny Mice (Acomys)." Nature 489 (2012): 561-65. doi:10.1038/nature11499

Gawriluk, Thomas R., Jennifer Simkin, Katherine L. Thompson, Shishir K. Biswas, Zak Clare-Salzler, John M. Kimani, Stephen G. Kiama, Jeramiah J. Smith, Vanessa O. Ezenwa & Ashley W. Seifert. "Comparative analysis of ear-hole closure identifies epimorphic regeneration as a discrete trait in mammals" Nature Communications 7.11164 (2016). doi:10.1038/ncomms11164