The secret behind the lizard's strange tail

Lizard is one of the best creatures. In just 1 month, they can regrow a lost tail without any harm.

Humans have always considered themselves a superior species. It is also possible, because we are superior animals, with outstanding thinking ability.

But the human body is actually very normal, especially after recovering from injury. We can only recover at the most basic level, but if severe injuries such as loss of limbs or spinal injuries are forced to suffer from disability.

In this area, lizards are truly a superior creature. Lost tail - small story, because they will quickly grow a new one. Some other animals such as seahorses can even recover the heart and spine.

Gecko can regenerate the tail by activating a group of stem cells when the tail is lost.

That special ability has been noticed by science for a long time. And recently, people have a better understanding of the secret behind it, and this is said to be very helpful for future medicine.

"With science, this is the ultimate form of recovery " - quoted Matthew Vickaryous, a biologist from the University of Guelph (Canada).

Vickaryous said, there is a lizard that makes him very impressed: it is a leopard gecko . First, their tail contains a huge part of the spine in it. Second, they have the ability to split the tail at extremely fast speeds, so studying it is extremely easy.

"We simply need to firm their tails, and they fall out on their own," Vickayous said. Meanwhile, other lizards are more difficult to shed.

In addition, once the tail is lost, the leopard gecko can regrow in less than a month - a significantly faster time than normal species.

Based on previous studies, experts determined that some types of stem cells may be related to this ability. These are the most basic cell types, which can be used to transform into more complex cell types: skin, muscle, and even heart.

To confirm, Vickaryous tried to observe what happens to the gecko's tail at the cellular level. He discovered that when the tail was removed, a group of glial cells of the stem cell group also appeared. They quickly clone, accumulate protein. In just one month, this process resulted in a new tail.

However, the most unexpected finding was that when the tail fell, blood clots quickly appeared, covering the wound. If a piece of skin is attached to the area of ​​the blood clot, the new tail will not appear again.

Experts believe that leaving the wound open will signal, saying that something needs to be replaced. If the wound is blocked, the signal will be obstructed, and the possibility of tail growth will not work either.

Vickaryous said, we can apply this in human medicine. When patients have a spinal injury, we will see a thin layer of tissue wrapped around the wound. That is the scar, which appears to reduce inflammation. But according to Vickaryous, this process may inadvertently cause spinal tissues to not recover.

Just lightly, the lizard's tail immediately falls.

Obviously, geckos do not form scars, and they remain healthy."Without scarring can be a factor that allows them to regrow their bodies."

So why do people scarify when injured, instead of creating new cells? In fact, this is an unanswered question.

In fact, glial cells are also extremely abundant in the human brain and spine at fetal stage. But when we fully develop, this amount of cells has disappeared. According to Vikaryous, this may be the reason we cannot heal spinal-related injuries - simply because there are not enough cells to do so.

With this finding, the team is now preparing to address a question even bigger than that. Can re-supply glial cells into the spine can prevent the formation of scars, while increasing recovery for humans?

This idea is not entirely absurd, because gecko species can continually regenerate the tail until the end of life, only thanks to such cells. In addition, experts are looking to learn how to repair other gecko organs - including brain cells.

Of course, it may still be too early to assume that people will regain their limbs in the future. But really, faith is also greatly strengthened over time.