Researchers reporting in iScience have discovered that spiny mice can regenerate severely damaged internal organs that, in other mice, would lead to fatal organ failure. According to the team of scientists from the University of Washington, the findings in spiny mice are the first to show kidney regeneration in an adult mammal.
“The global health burden for loss of vital organ function due to progressive tissue fibrosis is enormous,” says Mark Majesky, principal investigator. “Very few treatment options are currently available for patients with end-stage kidney disease or similar degenerative fibrotic diseases of the heart, lungs, liver, or reproductive organs. Our group took a different approach to this problem and looked to nature to provide clues that might lead to novel therapies.”
To find out, they exposed spiny mice to conditions that are known to cause serious kidney injury in other mice (genus Mus). Their studies showed that, although spiny mice suffered the same degree of tissue injury initially, they were nevertheless able to completely heal: they regenerated an apparently healthy kidney with no signs of fibrosis. As expected, other mice treated in the same way progressed to organ failure.
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“The dramatic and complete recovery of kidney function over a two-week time course in spiny mice was quite surprising to us,” researcher Daryl Okamura says. “The types of severe injuries we used were chosen because they produce a decisive and rapid loss of kidney function in mice and led to complete organ failure over the same two-week period.”
Their studies suggest that the spiny mouse genome is poised at the time of injury to launch a rapid, scarless regenerative response in surviving kidney cells. The analysis uncovered differences between Acomys and Mus in the activity of 843 genes in six unique clusters. They also saw a delayed response by macrophages, which are known to play a role in fibrosis. Unlike in other mice, macrophages didn’t appear on the scene for about a week.