Abstract:

Introduction: A key challenge in designing tissue repair strategies is knowing whether and how developmental mechanisms are used for successful repair of mature/adult tissues.Although it is known that developmental components are used in repair, it remains mostly unclear which ones are required and whether they act similarly as during development.This issue is further complicated by the fact that it is difficult to assess the similarities and differences between development and the repair of mature tissues, since the two contexts are highly dissimilar. A potentially useful yet underutilized approach is to understand developmental regrowth (defined here as the ability to compensate for missing tissues by restoring normal organ structures and function). An ideal model would have two key features: repair capacity in the organ of interest during development, and well-understood developmental mechanisms. This approach reduces the complexity of comparing mature repair processes to developmental ones.The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, has a high capacity to restore lost body structures, including the eye, It can regenerate the retina and lens after injury,and Xenopus eye development is well characterized with known mechanisms.