REGENERATING ANEMONES

The sea anemone is able to regenerate its entire body after being chopped into pieces, with each piece growing into a new organism. The ability for cells from one body part to create an entirely new body part is not found naturally in vertebrates and could hold the clues to generating new organs, such as hearts, from other cells.

A recent study by the University of Florida has discovered that the heart genes of vertebrates and flies have what they call “lockdown loops”, meaning that once their cells have adopted a function, it is “locked down” and these cells can not be used for other functions.

However, the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, does not have these lockdown loops, and it is hoped that by better understanding how they function, it may be possible for humans to begin to “unlock” the ability to regenerate our own organs.