Researchers are inching closer towards understanding the necessary conditions for regeneration.
A salamander has an immune system that allows it to regenerate limbs, spinal cords, brain tissue and parts of the heart.
When researchers removed an immune cell called a macrophage, the salamander could no longer completely heal the injury site, forming scar tissue instead.
Earlier research understood macrophages as negative rather than positive for regeneration.
Researchers hope to reverse-engineer salamander regeneration processes for human therapies in relation to heart and liver diseases.
Read more at Monash University