Influence of indomethacin on lens regeneration in the newt notophthalmus viridescens

Summary Following lentectomy newts were injected with indomethacin in a variety of carrier solutions at doses ranging from 1.2–120 mg/kg body weight every other day for 15–17 days. The results show that injection of this drug according to the regimen used has no significant effect on regeneration of the lens. The data suggest, but do not prove, that prostaglandins may not play a major role in the early phases of lens regeneration in the newt.     

The influence of the nerve on lower jaw regeneration in the adult newt, Triturus viridescens

The present investigation was undertaken in an attempt to determine the role played by the nerve in the regeneration of the lower jaw of the adult newt, Triturus viridescens. The results indicated that the number of nerve fibers normally available at the amputation surface was very low compared with that of the newt forelimb. Furthermore, denervation of the lower jaw reduced the number of nerve fibers available to an extremely low level and maintained the number at a low level for up to four weeks without intervening redenervations. The regenerative events in the denervated and amputated lower jaws were indistinguishable histologically from those in amputated jaws having normal innervation. This presented an apparent exception to the general rule that regeneration of external body parts is dependent on the nerve. Several possible explanations are proposed by which this apparent exception might be explained. The process following amputation might be an exaggerated form of wound healing and tissue regeneration which can occur in the absence of nerves. The tissues of the lower jaw might be more sensitive to the influence of those nerve fibers present. The nerve fibers themselves might be qualitatively different and thus exert a greater influence on the tissues.     

Avian scale development. X. Dermal induction of tissue-specific keratins in extraembryonic ectoderm

Epidermal-dermal tissue interactions regulate morphogenesis and tissue-specific keratinization of avian skin appendages. The morphogenesis of scutate scales differs from that of reticulate scales, and the keratin polypeptides of their epidermal surfaces are also different. Do the inductive cues which initiate morphogenesis of these scales also establish the tissue-specific keratin patterns of the epidermis, or does the control of tissue-specific keratinization occur at later stages of development? Unlike feathers, scutate and reticulate scales can be easily separated into their epidermal and dermal components late in development when the major events of morphogenesis have been completed and keratinization will begin. Using a common responding tissue (chorionic epithelium) in combination with scutate and reticulate scale dermises, we find that these embryonic dermises, which have completed morphogenesis, can direct tissue-specific statification and keratinization. In other words, once a scale dermis has acquired its form, through normal morphogenesis, it is no longer able to initiate morphogenesis of that scale, but it can direct tissue-specific stratification and keratinization of a foreign ectodermal epithelium, which itself has not undergone scale morphogenesis.