Tail regeneration

How does the regeneration of lizard a lizard tail work?

  

It is fasinating how a animal like a lizard could get its tail cut of but in a couple of hours it just grows back. That is called tail regeneration."The Australian gecko lizard Christinus marmoratus can shed its tail voluntarily (tail autotomy) and regenerate a new complex tail consisting of skin, muscle, fat, cartilage, and neural tissues".(www.fasebj.org/content/17/3/479.full) It is a fact that the lymphatics of the lizard is a gland. There is the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) it is just like a molecule that exist inside the gecko.

  


 

  After testing and working with the salamander we can tell that it would take up to 18 weeks for a full tail to grow back to its full size. Does the regeneration use any brain power to make it work or does is just happen naturally for them? "Reptiles have a protein growth factor homologous to human VEGF-C at the carboxyl terminus". There are sometimes when the regeneration process takes a little longer then it should, there appears to be a lag time before lymph angiogenesis is triggered. The "expression dramatically increased  between 3 and 6 wk after autotomy, and was significantly up-regulated above levels in original tails at 9, 12, and 15 wk".