Int. J. Dev. Biol. 45: S127 - S128 (2001)

Vol 45, Issue S1

FGF signalling and blastema growth during amphibian tail regeneration

Published: 1 June 2001

P Ferretti, F Zhang, L Santos-Ruiz, JDW Clarke

Univ Coll London, Inst Child Hlth, Dev Biol Unit, London, England

Abstract

Urodeles amphibians can regenerate their tails, including spinal cord and ganglia, as adults. The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying tail regeneration, and particularly recruitment of neural progenitors and the initiation of their division have yet to be fully elucidated. We have studied the role of FGF2 in this process and found that FGF2 is important both for regeneration of the spinal cord and of the mesenchymal tissues of the tail stump, as indicated by its up-regulation in the blastema and in ependymal cells and by the fact that FGF2-soaked beads increase blastema growth as compared to controls. We have also studied the expression of Pleurodeles Sox1 in regenerating tails, as members of this gene family have been shown to be upstream of FGF signalling in other systems. We show by RT-PCR analysis that this gene is expressed at low levels in normal tail, suggesting that its presence in the adult newt tail may be causally related to its high regenerative capability. Furthermore, this gene is significantly up-regulated following tail amputation indicating that it plays an important role during tail regeneration.

Keywords

Limb regeneration, expression