NEW ORLEANS, June 15 (UPI) -- A professor at Tulane University in New Orleans says he is studying a Mexican salamander in the hope of learning how to regenerate human limbs.
Ken Muneoka, a cell and molecular biology professor at Tulane, said his research team of biologists from the University of Kentucky and the University of California at Irvine are attempting to learn how the salamander is able to regenerate its limbs, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Sunday.
"What we want to do is a detailed analysis of regeneration in mice for comparison to regeneration in axolotl," Muneoka said, using the other name for the Mexican animal.
The key to the axolotl's regenerative ability is that the salamander's cells create a structure called blastema that brings about limb regeneration rather than the creation of scar tissue.
The animal's regenerative ability also involves the use of a cell called a fibroblast, which both mice and humans also have in their bodies.
The Times-Picayune said the U.S. Department of Defense has granted the researchers $6.25 million for their regeneration study.
