A new step forward towards the regeneration of amputated limbs. Researchers led by Harvard Medical School have reprogrammed in mice and chickens the most common cells present in the skin, called fibroblasts.
The cells have properties similar to those that give rise to limbs in embryos and which are capable of forming most different tissues. Researchers are now trying to apply this method to human cells, but also to those of snakes: the ancestors of these animals, in fact, possessed limbs that were then lost during evolution.