Abstract
Unlike mammals, Xenopus laevis tadpoles possess high ability to regenerate their lost organs. In amphibians, the main source of regenerated tissues is lineage-restricted tissue stem cells, but the mechanisms underlying induction, maintenance and differentiation of these stem/progenitor cells in the regenerating organs are poorly understood. We previously reported that interleukin-11 (il-11) is highly expressed in the proliferating cells of regenerating Xenopus tadpole tails. Here, we show that il-11 knockdown (KD) shortens the regenerated tail length, and the phenotype is rescued by forced-il-11-expression in the KD tadpoles. Moreover, marker genes for undifferentiated notochord, muscle, and sensory neurons are downregulated in the KD tadpoles, and the forced-il-11-expression in intact tadpole tails induces expression of these marker genes. Our findings demonstrate that il-11 is necessary for organ regeneration, and suggest that IL-11 plays a key role in the induction and maintenance of undifferentiated progenitors across cell lineages during Xenopus tail regeneration.
Highlights
Unlike mammals, Xenopus laevis tadpoles possess high ability to regenerate their lost organs
We previously reported that interleukin-11 is highly expressed in the proliferating cells in regenerating X. laevis tadpole tails[4], raising the possibility that IL-11 plays a crucial role in Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration
IL-11 treatment is reported to maintain the expression of undifferentiated markers in human embryonic stem cells17. il-11 is suggested to be involved in regeneration. il-11 is reported to be expressed in the regenerating heart of zebrafish, and forced expression of a dominant negative form of signal transducer and activator of transcription (Stat)[3] inhibits the proliferation of cardiomyocytes and heart regeneration[18]
Summary
Xenopus laevis tadpoles possess high ability to regenerate their lost organs. Our findings demonstrate that il-11 is necessary for organ regeneration, and suggest that IL-11 plays a key role in the induction and maintenance of undifferentiated progenitors across cell lineages during Xenopus tail regeneration. Some lower vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians, have a prominent ability to regenerate their lost organs compared to mammals[1]. Our results strongly suggest that IL-11 plays a key role in the induction and maintenance of undifferentiated progenitor cells across cell lineages during Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration
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