Scientists Figured Out How a Jellyfish Relative Heals Itself in Minutes Without Scarring
· Vice
There is a certain logic to it when you think about it. Researchers just figured out how a jellyfish relative can heal wounds in a matter of minutes.
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According to a new paper published in Molecular Biology of the Cell and highlighted by Phys.org, researchers at the University of Chicago have identified the mechanism that allows the hydrozoan Clytia hemisphaerica to repair wounds in minutes without leaving scars. This could one day help us figure out how to better heal wounds in our own bodies.
When we get hurt, the injury triggers inflammation and can sometimes leave a permanent scar. Clytia heals almost instantly, before your eyes, quite Wolverine-like. A tiny moon will seal itself in 3 to 5 minutes, while a larger one closes in about an hour. Watching it happen under a microscope, researchers noticed that nearby cells first crawl toward the wound using these flat little structures called lamellipodia. Then, a ring of proteins contracts like the drawstring on a bag, pulling everything together to create a firm seal.
This Jellyfish Relative Can Repair Itself in Minutes, and the Secret Is Surprisingly Simple
A signal is sent from the “basement membrane,” which, according to paper author Jocelyn Malamy, is “a protein sheet that’s underneath all epithelial cells in all systems.” As long as that membrane is exposed, cells keep on crawling around. Once it’s covered, they stop exploring and start squeezing the wound until it closes. The research team found that the same basic decision-making process was at play whether the injury pierced a single cell or tore through entire sheets of tissue.
Maybe the most fascinating discovery was that individual cells could distinguish their own tissue from that of neighboring cells, allowing them to fuse with one another while avoiding accidental fusion with a different cell.
Humans and jellyfish look nothing alike, yet we share a lot of the same underlying mechanisms of wound repair. Theoretically, whatever’s going on in Clytia could, theoretically, happen in us, but it’s still way too early to know if the same basement membrane signals control healing in people.
If they do, we can chalk up this discovery to a translucent little jellyfish that looks like a plastic grocery bag floating at sea.
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