Meeting Abstract
47.7 Sunday, Jan. 5 11:45 Cellular insights into the morphogenesis of vertebrate repair and regeneration HAIGO, SL*; RODRIGO-ALBORS, A; TAZAKI, A; TANAKA, EM; REITER, JF; University of California, San Francisco; Technische Universität Dresden; Technische Universität Dresden; Technische Universität Dresden; University of California, San Francisco saori.haigo@ucsf.edu
Among vertebrates, urodele amphibians have a remarkable ability to perfectly regenerate damaged organs and lost appendages, while mammals show restricted tissue repair, often with scarring of repaired organs. To elucidate conserved and divergent mechanisms utilized by regenerating versus repairing vertebrate animals, we are studying the cellular basis of the morphogenesis of spinal cord regeneration in the axolotl and skin wound healing in the mouse. We first sought to identify the activated zone of cells surrounding a full-thickness excision of the mouse skin. Similar to the axolotl, which activates a ~500 micrometer zone to reconstruct the lost spinal cord following tail amputation, we find that the mouse skin has a similar ~500 micrometer zone adjacent to the wound that is activated to repair the epidermis following injury. Moreover, this activated zone maintains this ~500 micrometer distance from the wound edge despite changing the size of the wound. These data suggest a conserved spatial region exists within vertebrates in response to any wound, whether the organ ultimately repairs or regenerates, or varies in the initial extent of injury. Next, to investigate how the neural progenitor cells from this 500 micrometer source zone initially reconstruct the regenerating spinal cord, we have developed real time, deep tissue in vivo imaging of juvenile axolotls and find that these cells undergo single and collective migration with exploratory protrusive activity at the leading edge during the initial phase of tail regeneration. Lastly, we’ll discuss the role of the planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling pathway, a key regulator of developmental morphogenesis, during the morphogenesis of tissue repair and regeneration.
