Planarian Regeneration

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When a planarian’s body part is removed a blastema forms at the wound site to regenerate the affected area. Per Newmark and Alvarado, the blastema is composed of an outer cell layer, or ectoderm, created by epidermal cell shape modifications covers the wound (Alvarado and Newmark, 1). Mesenchymal cells from previously undifferentiated cells form beneath the ectoderm, these cells later differentiate into the removed appendages (Alvarado and Newmark, 1). In the 1900’s, T.H. Morgan began to study planarian regeneration. In order to study the regeneration of old tissue into new tissue, Morgan began to study with “cell marking experiments” (Alvarado and Newmark, 4). The cell marking experiments were carried out “by cauterizing pigment stripes and

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