Study
The axolotl limb blastema: cellular and molecular mechanisms driving blastema formation and limb regeneration in tetrapods
McCusker, Catherine; Bryant, Susan V.; Gardiner, David M.
Regeneration, 2015
A synthesis of how a salamander limb regenerates: wound epidermis formation, nerve dependence, dedifferentiation of local tissue into a blastema, and the positional information that determines what gets rebuilt.
- Studied in
- Ambystoma mexicanum
- Sample size
- review of blastema formation research
Regeneration proceeds through a blastema — a mass of proliferating cells formed from local tissue that has reverted to a less specialised state. Cells largely retain memory of their tissue of origin rather than becoming fully pluripotent, and the structure rebuilt is determined by positional information retained in the connective tissue. The process requires nerve input: a denervated limb forms no blastema.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Regeneration is a recapitulation of limb development under the control of positional information held in adult tissue, rather than the activation of a reserve of embryonic stem cells.
How NatureHQ reads it
The nerve dependence is the detail that reorganises the subject. An axolotl limb does not regrow because the animal has spare parts; it regrows because the stump can still be told where it is and what is missing, and cutting the nerve removes the instruction rather than the material. That also explains the limit — regeneration reproduces what should be at that position, so it cannot build anything the animal did not have.
- Positional information is well demonstrated and its molecular basis is only partly identified.
- Salamander results do not transfer straightforwardly to mammals, which is the whole difficulty.
- Laboratory animals of one species, at controlled temperature.
Amputating a limb with the nerve cut, and watching nothing happen
An axolotl rebuilds an amputated limb. Is that because the tissue is capable of it, or because something tells the tissue to do it?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-11.