Appendage regeneration in adult vertebrates and implications for regenerative medicine

The regeneration of complex structures in adult salamanders depends on mechanisms that offer pointers for regenerative medicine. These include the plasticity of differentiated cells and the retention in regenerative cells of local cues such as positional identity. Limb regeneration proceeds by the local formation of a blastema, a growth zone of mesenchymal stem cells on the stump. The blastema can regenerate autonomously as a self-organizing system over variable linear dimensions. Here we consider the prospects for limb regeneration in mammals from this viewpoint.