Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Planarians are capable of profound regenerative feats dependent upon a population of self-renewing adult stem cells called neoblasts. The key features of neoblasts are their capacity for indefinite self-renewal, their totipotency and the ability of their progeny to interpret differentiation and polarity signals and correctly replace lost structures after tissue damage. Regeneration in planarians offers a paradigm for understanding the molecular and cellular control of the repair and regeneration of animal tissues, and could provide valuable insights for the safe use of stem cells to repair damaged, diseased and ageing human tissues with little or no regenerative capacities. Here, I review recent progress in understanding neoblasts in regeneration and the growing potential this research has to be broadly informative for human biology.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.tcb.2011.01.005

Type

Journal article

Journal

Trends Cell Biol

Publication Date

05/2011

Volume

21

Pages

304 - 311

Keywords

Animals, Cell Differentiation, Chromatids, Chromatin, Humans, Planarians, RNA, Regeneration, Stem Cells