Vertebrate species have evolved efficient respiratory organs – such as gills and lungs – to mediate gas exchange and satisfy their O₂ needs. While fish and amphibians can grow and regenerate gills throughout life, mammals only show partial, facultative regeneration of lung tissue following injury. A new study used adult zebrafish to characterize the signaling pathways involved in the early stages of gill regeneration. The researchers performed gill resections on zebrafish and observed the effects of different pharmacological pathway inhibitors on gill regeneration for several days. They also used reverse transcription quantitative PCR and in situ hybridization to study gene expression in regenerating gill tissues; and altogether the results implicate BMP, FGF, Notch and Shh signaling in gill regeneration in zebrafish. Given the structural homology between gills and lungs, the findings could increase our understanding of the relatively limited regenerative potential of the lung, which may lead to new developments in treating human lung disease.

Original reference: Cadiz, L. et al. J. Exp. Biol. 227, jeb246290 (2024)

脊椎动物已经进化出高效的呼吸器官（例如鳃和肺）来介导气体交换并满足 O ₂需求。虽然鱼类和两栖动物一生中都可以生长和再生鳃，但哺乳动物在受伤后仅表现出部分、兼性的肺组织再生。一项新研究使用成年斑马鱼来表征鳃再生早期阶段涉及的信号通路。研究人员对斑马鱼进行了鳃切除，并观察了不同药理途径抑制剂对鳃再生的影响几天。他们还使用逆转录定量PCR和原位杂交来研究再生鳃组织中的基因表达；总的来说，结果表明 BMP、FGF、Notch 和 Shh 信号传导参与斑马鱼的鳃再生。鉴于鳃和肺之间的结构同源性，这些发现可以增加我们对肺相对有限的再生潜力的理解，这可能会导致治疗人类肺部疾病的新进展。

原始参考文献： Cadiz, L. et al. J.Exp。生物。227、jeb246290 (2024)