Abstract
The adult Eastern newt, Notophthalmus viridescens, has long served as a model for appendage as well as heart muscle regeneration studies. Newt tissues include all major cell types known in other vertebrates and mammals, including bone, cartilage, tendon, muscle, nerves, dermis, and epidermis. Therefore, these aquatic salamanders make an excellent model for studying the regeneration of complex tissues. Regeneration of adult tissues requires the integration of new tissues with preexisting tissues to form a functioning unit through a process that is not yet well understood. Scale is also an issue, because the regenerating tissues or structures are magnitudes larger than their embryonic counterparts during development, and therefore, it is likely that different physics and mechanics apply. Regardless, regeneration recapitulates to some degree developmental processes. In this chapter, we will describe basic methods for maintaining adult Eastern newts in the laboratory for the study of regeneration. To determine similarities and differences between development and regeneration at the cellular and molecular level, there is also a need for embryonic newt tissue. We therefore also outline a relatively simple way to produce and raise newt embryos in the laboratory.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge both current and former researchers in our respective laboratories who helped develop the protocols described in this chapter. These individuals include Paul Khan, Barbara Linkhart, Claudia Guzman, Sarah Calve, Sarah Mercer, Donald Atkinson, Vladimir Vinarsky, Tamara Stevenson, David Kent, and Katherine Zukor. We would also like to acknowledge several of our colleagues who provided us with invaluable advice when we were just beginning our studies on regeneration using this remarkable animal, including Cliff Tabin, Mark Keating, Jeremy Brockes, David Stocum, Roy Tassava, Panagiotis Tsonis, and Anthony Mescher.
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Simon, HG., Odelberg, S. (2015). Maintaining Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) for Regeneration Research. In: Kumar, A., Simon, A. (eds) Salamanders in Regeneration Research. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1290. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2495-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2495-0_2
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