Axolotls can rebuild their brains
“Eternal tadpoles” reveal the evolutionary processes of the central nervous system. And in the future, they may help people who have suffered extensive brain damage.
Axolotls — amphibians native to Mexico — have been known to Western science for 150 years. And since then they have never ceased to amaze. They are “perpetual tadpoles” that never grow into their adult, terrestrial form, plus they have remarkable regenerative abilities. You can remove their gills, tail or limbs, and they will recreate those body parts — and fully functional ones at that. They can also regenerate a crushed spine along with the spinal cord, and even eyes. It had also been known for some time that axolotls could rebuild brain tissue, but evidence was lacking that the new neurons could not only reconstitute themselves, but also perform the same functions as their predecessors. The findings, published in Science, shed new light on earlier speculations.
Their authors analyzed a specific part of the axolotl brain — the so-called crescendo. When the vertebrate brain differentiates at the stage of embryonic development, it first divides into three vesicles: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. The former, in turn, at…
