Simple recipe for starting to grow a limb

The surprisingly simple recipe for starting to grow a limb

The proteins needed to create limb progenitor cells are marked with different colors under a microscope. Credit: Yuji Atsuta/Tabin lab

How do organisms form limbs in the womb? Scientists have been striving to answer this question not only to deepen our understanding of evolution and embryonic development, but also to help make the dream of regenerating partial or entire limbs a reality.

A team led by Harvard Medical School geneticists just took a step forward on that long road.

As described in their article published Feb. 5 in Developmental Cell, the researchers identified the special ingredients needed to kick off limb creation in mice and chicks.

"People in the field have known a lot of the proteins critical for limb formation, but we found that there are proteins we missed," said study co-first author ChangHee Lee, research fellow in genetics in the lab of Cliff Tabin at HMS.

The team found that a combination of just three proteins—Prdm16, Zbtb16, and Lin28a—is necessary and sufficient to turn certain non-limb-forming stem cells into limb-forming ones. A fourth protein, Lin41, speeds the process along

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