Science Bites - Discovery of Regrowth Cells in Gecko Tail - Implications for Spinal Cord Regeneration in Humans

Pixabay

The lizard family has the uncanny ability to sacrifice their tails during a predator attack distracting predators while securing an escape. Most incredibly, lizards who do survive a predator attack are known to regrow their tails (this includes their spinal cords) and continue a healthy lizard life. What recent research has discovered are the cells involved in this regrowth - the radial glia. More specifically, the radial glia are stem cells in geckos. The study shows that radial glia cells are most active during the tail regrowth stage. As a result Geckos are able to regrow a new tail in about 30 days. Researchers established that radial glia are specialized stem cells activated during times of injury otherwise remaining dormant.

It is well known that geckos are able to regenerate many parts of their bodies from injury, the question scientists are now asking is how can this discovery aid in the treatment of spinal injury in humans? By comparison humans do not regenerate their spinal cord, commonly scar tissue is formed at the site of injury that prevents true regeneration of the area.

It will be interesting to see how this discovery progresses the science of spinal cord regeneration in the real world!

References

E.A.B. Gilbert, M.K. Vickaryous. Neural stem/progenitor cells are activated during tail regeneration in the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/cne.24335.