The Immortal Jellyfish (Credit: Getty Images)
The immortal jellyfish is capable of winding back its lifecycle to become young again. Scientists are unlocking its cellular secrets to find ways human cells could rejuvenate too.
Turritopsis dohrnii's regenerative talents were first reported in 1992 by an Italian scientist who was keeping the animals in the lab and forgot to feed them over a weekend. Expecting to find them dead when he returned, "instead he found new polyps in the container",
As embryos develop, so-called stem cells multiply and morph into the nerve cells, muscle cells and various other cell types that make up the body. Usually, they're stuck in that particular cell type until they age and die. But Piraino discovered that, during the immortal jellyfish's rejuvenation, certain tissues in the medusa undergo a "transdifferentiation" process" where they revert back to a stem cell-type state and then specialise into other cell types.
A 19th-Century image depicts T. dohrnii, before the extraordinary nature of its lifecycle was discovered (Credit: Alamy)
If possible, that could accelerate the healing of wounds or injured tissue after strokes or heart attacks, or perhaps even reverse the damage that occurs in age-driven vision loss or the neurodegeneration that happens in Alzheimer's disease.
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