Mainly limited to portions of liver tissue, bone, or muscle, human regeneration has yet to be fully understood – we’ve only begun to scratch the surface. However, armed with the understanding of how regeneration occurs in other taxonomic groups may enable scientists to improve the regenerative abilities of humans in the future.
Take the lizard, for example. Able to regenerate facial bones, areas of the spinal cord, and their tail – although the regenerated tail does not include bone but hyaline cartilage, the very same that lines human joints – there is much that can be learned from this little creature. With arthritis, osteoarthritis, spinal cord injuries, and the like, the application of these abilities is of extreme interest to medical institutions.
Also interesting: there are several kinds of regeneration. It is most likely that lizards utilize a stem-cell mediated regeneration where new cells involved in regrowth stem from tissue-specific progenitor cells. This is the best bet for a regenerative process compatible for the human system. And so lizards entered Arizona State University biologist Kenro Kusumi’s life in 1980. More than 30 years later, he is still pursuing the answers to questions that have become a hot topic in recent years.