Self-Healing Mice

Researchers have discovered a unique strain of mouse that can regrow body parts without any scarring. They hope this could lead to new therapies for people. This ScienCentral News video explains.

Furry, little mice may not be your favorite things in the world, but they don't generally have the fear factor of horror films… unless, perhaps, they start regrowing their body parts.

While studying an autoimmune disease in a specially bred species of mouse, immunologist Ellen Heber-Katz and her research team at Philadelphia's Wistar Institute discovered the animals' natural ability to reqenerate. "It's interesting and exciting that mammals may not have lost the ability to regenerate, the way amphibians or starfish do," Heber-Katz says.

Researchers routinely keep track of lab mice using unique ear piercings. But the Wistar team saw that the strain of mouse they were working with completely re-grew this tissue after only four weeks.

Self-Healing Mice