deer antlers stem cells

 

A population of stem cells with strong regenerative potential discovered in deer antlers

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• BY
•  
• • TAO QIN
  • GUOKUN ZHANG
  • YI ZHENG
  • SHENGYOU LI
  • YUAN YUAN
  • QINGJIE LI
  • MINGLIANG HU
  • HUAZHE SI
  • GUANNING WEI
  • XUELI GAO
  • [...]
  • QIANG QIU
  • +11 authors 
• 23 FEB 2023: 840-847
•  
• NO ACCESS

A single-cell atlas of antler regrowth reveals a population of antler blastema progenitor cells required for regeneration.

ABSTRACT

RELATED PERSPECTIVE

Stem cells drive antler regeneration

BY DATAO WANG, TOMAS LANDETE-CASTILLEJOS  

A population of stem cells with strong regenerative potential discovered in deer antlers

TAO QIN HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-0906-6335, GUOKUN ZHANG HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-2177-418X, YI ZHENG HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-7827-7614, SHENGYOU LI HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-3739-2477, YUAN YUAN HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-8849-3609, QINGJIE LI HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-1805-670X, MINGLIANG HU HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-9018-6715, HUAZHE SI HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-4721-5047, GUANNING WEI, XUELI GAO, XINXIN CUI, BING XIA, JING REN, KUN WANG HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-6059-6529, HENGXING BA HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0003-0882-8841, ZHEN LIU, RASMUS HELLER HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-6583-6923, ZHIPENG LI HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-8474-045X , WEN WANG HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-7801-2066 , JINGHUI HUANG HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-0991-0591 , CHUNYI LI HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-7275-4440 , AND QIANG QIU HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-9874-271X fewerAuthors Info & Affiliations

SCIENCE

23 Feb 2023

Vol 379, Issue 6634

pp. 840-847

 

 

AAbstract

Understanding the biology underlying the regeneration of animal limbs, organs, and tissues could be a source of potential applications in medicine. Antlers of deer are a particularly good example because they show complete morphological, structural, and functional regeneration every year, unlike compensatory regeneration in response to injury, for example, as seen in the liver (1, 2). An outstanding characteristic of the antler is the speed of regeneration: They can grow up to 2.75 cm per day and reach up to 15 kg in mass and 120 cm in length in ∼3 months (3). How do deer antlers achieve such rapid and complete regeneration? On page 840 of this issue, Qin et al. (4) identify a population of antler blastema progenitor cells (ABPCs) that are responsible for the antler regenerative cycle. These findings add to the emerging idea that blastema progenitor cells are a common stem cell type in mammalian appendage regeneration.

An outstanding characteristic of the antler is the speed of regeneration: They can grow up to 2.75 cm per day and reach up to 15 kg in mass and 120 cm in length in ∼3 months (3). How do deer antlers achieve such rapid and complete regeneration? The earliest-stage antler initiators were mesenchymal cells that express the paired related homeobox 1 gene (PRRX1+ mesenchymal cells). We also identified a population of “antler blastema progenitor cells” (ABPCs) that developed from the PRRX1+ mesenchymal cells and directed the antler regeneration process.