Grafted limb cells acquire molecular ‘fingerprint’ of new location
The findings provide a better understanding of how grafted tissue changes its identity to match the host tissue environment during the process of limb regeneration and bring scientists closer to establishing regenerative therapies for humans. The results also challenge the conventional assumption in regeneration biology that cellular properties are predetermined. By examining cells from blastema tissue in salamanders — amphibians that can regrow lost limbs — the researchers learned that grafted tissue does not spur growth of structures consistent with the region of the limb it came from, but rather it transforms into the cell signature of the limb region it’s been grafted onto. …