The African Spiny Mouse can regrow damaged tissues which has inspired scientists to seek out ways of applying this ability to human skin, researchers from the University of Florida wrote in the journal Nature.

Biologists have been studying how salamanders manage to regrow lost limbs. A salamander is an amphibian, not a mammal, like we are. Translating what happens in amphibians to humans is extremely difficult. However, the African Spiny Mouse, a mammal, appears to have similar regenerative abilities to the salamander. The authors say that applying what occurs in a non-human mammal to a human is much more feasible, compared to doing the same with amphibians.

The authors believe the new mouse model could be used for research in regenerative medicine.

Post-doctoral researcher, Ashley W. Seifert, said:

“The African spiny mouse appears to regenerate ear tissue in much the way that a salamander regrows a limb that has been lost to a predator. Skin, hair follicles, cartilage – it all comes back.”

Other mammals do not regrow tissue like this mouse does. Typically, scar tissue forms when the gap created by a wound is filled. The Spiny Mouse regrows tissue on its main body after injury, especially in its ears. In the rest of the body, for example on its back, hair follicles and skin regrow – but muscle under the skin does not regenerate.

While Seifert was carrying out research on amphibian scar-free healing, a colleague told him that a small mouse had been detected in Africa which appeared capable of autotomy – when an animal casts off a part of its body, such as its tail, when it is under threat from a predator.

Seifert said that autotomy is known to occur in some reptiles, such as salamanders, geckos and skinks. It is extremely rare in mammals – very few have been seen to cast off their tails.

The African Spiny Mouse can escape from a predator’s grasp by having “tear-away-skin”. Siefert was so intrigued by this that he went to the Mpala Research Center, near Nairobi, Kenya, to see for himself.



The African Spiny Mouse (Acomys dimidiatus) has tear-away-skin

Siefert documented the first known case of mammalian autotomy in Nairobi. What really got his attention was how the mouse’s injuries seemed to be healing.

Seifert punched 4mm holes in the mice’s ears and waited to see whether they healed up, and if they did so, what the scarring would be like.

Seifert said:

“The results were astonishing. The various tissues in the ear grew back through formation of blastema-like structures – the same sort of biological process that a salamander uses to regenerate a severed limb.”

Scientists believe that what occurs in the African Spiny Mouse might be a model system of wound healing and tissue regeneration that could one day be applied to humans.

Related article on skin regeneration:

“Advances In Control Of Skin Regeneration Could Help Patients With Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Burn Victims”

Written by Christian Nordqvist