J. Dev. Biol., Volume 3, Issue 2 (June 2015) – 3 articles , Pages 25-89

Cartilage regeneration is massive during tail regeneration in lizards but little is known about cartilage regeneration in other body regions of the skeleton. The recovery capability of injured epiphyses of femur and tibia of lizard knees has been studied by histology and 5BrdU immunohistochemistry in lizards kept at high environmental temperatures. Lizard epiphyses contain a secondary ossified center of variable extension surrounded peripherally by an articular cartilage and basally by columns of chondrocytes that form the mataphyseal or growth plate. After injury of the knee epiphyses, a broad degeneration of the articular cartilage during the first days post-injury is present. However a rapid regeneration of cartilaginous tissue is observed from 7 to 14 days post-injury and by 21 days post-lesions, a large part of the epiphyses are reformed by new cartilage. Labeling with 5BrdU indicates that the proliferating cells are derived from both the surface of the articular cartilage and from the metaphyseal plate, two chondrogenic regions that appear proliferating also in normal, uninjured knees. Chondroblasts proliferate by interstitial multiplication forming isogenous groups with only a scant extracellular matrix that later increases. The high regenerative power of lizard articular cartilage appears related to the permanence of growing cartilaginous centers in the epiphyses of long bones such as those of the knee during adulthood. It is likely that these regions contain resident stem cells that give rise to new chondroblasts of the articular and metaphyseal cartilage during most of the lizard’s lifetime, but can produce an excess of cartilaginous tissues when stimulated by the lesion. Full article

Since skin is the first barrier separating the body from the external environment, impaired wound healing can be life threatening to living organisms. Delayed healing processes are observed in animals under certain circumstances, such as advanced age, diabetes, and immunosuppression, but the underlying mechanisms of the abnormality remain elusive. Redox homeostasis is defined as the balance between the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants in which antioxidative enzymes play central roles in scavenging ROS. In addition to deleterious effects, ROS also exert beneficial functions on some cellular processes such as transducing phosphorylation signaling, but excessive antioxidants may impede the healing process. Hence, strict control over the amounts of antioxidants is desirable when applied for therapeutic purposes. Here we overview recent findings regarding the relationships between antioxidative enzymes and wound healing. Unveiling the role of antioxidative enzymes is expected to contribute to our understanding of the wound healing processes. Full article

Retinoic acid (RA) is an important signaling molecule in the development of the endoderm and an important molecule in protocols used to generate endodermal cell types from stem cells. In this review, we describe the RA signaling pathway and its role in the patterning and specification of the extra embryonic endoderm and different endodermal organs. The formation of endoderm is an ancient evolutionary feature and RA signaling appears to have coevolved with the vertebrate lineage. Towards that end, we describe how RA participates in many regulatory networks required for the formation of extraembryonic structures as well as the organs of the embryo proper. Full article