How a flatworm regenerates missing tissues: Pluripotent adult stem cells power planarian regeneration
Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 21:40
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have determined that the planarian flatworm regenerates missing tissues by using pluripotent adult stem cells. Until now, scientists could not determine whether the dividing cells in planarians, called neoblasts, are a mixture of specialized stem cells that each regenerates specific tissues, or if individual neoblasts are pluripotent and able to regenerate all tissues.