(Image source: Nature News)

BY STEVEN SPARKMAN

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

You're watching science news analysis from Newsy.

For more than 200 years, scientists have been fascinated by the newt and its ability to regrow body parts.

But a new study shows they’ve been wrong about the limits of the newt’s amazing abilities the entire time. A writer for The Scientist gives us some background.

“Regeneration studies conducted in the 1700s and 1800s noted that repeated limb amputation and regeneration in newts occasionally resulted in missing bone structures. This led to the belief that the regenerating capacity of newts and other animals declines with age or repetition.”

Some researchers wondered whether the newts in those studies gradually lost their regenerative powers because the labs weren’t sterile. So, to finally answer the question of how many times and until what age a newt can heal itself, researchers began a very long study.

“The experiment was initiated by my mentor, Goro Eguchi, in Japan 16 years ago. So he took newts where he knew the age, he had them in the lab, and from the same animal he removed the lens of the eye 18 times.” (Video source: University of Dayton)

They chose the lens because it only required a tiny cut which healed quickly -- avoiding contamination. And they used the same animals to avoid differences between individuals. Finally, after 16 years and 18 surgeries, the researchers tested how well the newts had coped with age and repeated injury. A writer for Discover Magazine explains the findings.

“...the 17th and 18th lenses were exactly the same as the original ones, and those from untouched newts of the same age. They were the same size and equally transparent. They grew back with equal speed. They had the same structures under the microscope. They even had a similar suite of active genes...”

So the newt’s ability to regrew body parts doesn’t change with age or repetition. And understanding how newts regenerate isn’t just idle curiosity. A writer for Nature News explains, scientists hope if they can understand the process, they could mimic it in humans.

“A main aim for scientists probing and slicing animals like these is to one day develop regenerative treatments for human diseases. As scientists attempt to engineer mammalian tissue regeneration, amphibians like newts and salamanders continue to show us what animals are capable of...”

The researchers say the discovery opens up a whole new range of research, like how newts’ cells can essentially turn back into stem cells in response to an injury and how newt DNA is repaired as it ages -- tricks that could eventually help humans.

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