title: Conjecture: Can continuous regeneration lead to immortality? Studies in the MRL mouse.
abstract: A particular mouse strain, the MRL mouse, has been shown to have unique healing properties that show normal replacement of tissue without scarring. The serendipitous discovery that the MRL mouse has a profound capacity for regeneration in some ways rivaling the classic newt and axolotl species raises the possibility that humans, too, may have an innate regenerative ability. We propose this mouse as a model for continuous regeneration with possible life-extending properties. We will use the classical "immortal" organism, the hydra, for comparison and examine those key phenotypes that contribute to their immortality as they are expressed in the MRL mouse versus control mouse strains. The phenotypes to be examined include the rate of proliferation and the rate of cell death, which leads to a continual turnover in cells without an increase in mass.
authors.affiliation: The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. heberkatz@wistar.org
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heber-Katz
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leferovich
authors.forename: Khamilia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bedelbaeva
authors.forename: Dmitri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gourevitch
authors.forename: Lise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008017:Life Expectancy; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D012038:Regeneration; D014945:Wound Healing; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology