A species of sea cucumber with immortal tissue has been discovered.

Researchers have discovered that a piece of tissue from the sea cucumber Psolus fabricii self-heals and continues to grow after being severed for three years, opening up many prospects for applications ranging from tissue regeneration to antimicrobial treatments.

According to CNN, some tissue fragments from Psolus fabricii, a species of sea cucumber found in the North Atlantic, baffled researchers at Memorial University in Canada because the severed tissue did not decompose and die but continued to grow. To investigate further, they took additional fragments from the sea cucumber's legs, main body, and tentacles to conduct experiments in untreated seawater. The results showed that the different tissue samples did not die; they healed themselves and even absorbed nutrients despite lacking a mouth.

Sea cucumber Psolus fabricii. Photo: Sara Jobson/MUN

Sara Jobson, lead author of the study published on May 27 in the journal Science Advances, said this is the first case of immortal tissue in natural conditions. "Sea cucumbers are known for their high regenerative capacity, so when they lose a tentacle or tubercle, they can regrow it easily, but nobody has ever investigated what happens to detached tissue, because we assumed it would die," Jobson said.

According to Jobson, this research came from a serendipitous discovery. When studying marine life, scientists often pull it out of the tank, but some animals cling tightly to their habitat on rocks or in the water. While the researcher was trying to remove the sea cucumber, some of its tube legs broke off and became stuck in the glass. Jobson and his colleagues noticed that the tissue fragments remained there for a long time. They healed themselves and even grew, surviving in seawater teeming with bacteria and other microorganisms.

The tissue fragments absorb amino acids from their environment without needing a mouth or gut. They not only continue to produce cells and show signs of an active immune system, but they also continue to move and respond when poked, even months after being severed. According to Phys.org, after three years, when the research team stopped the experiment, the sea cucumber tissue was still functioning. This ability to survive in this complex environment makes the Psolus fabricii cell population unique compared to other cultured tissues.

If sea cucumber tissue is confirmed to be immortal, it will have many applications in medical and cell biology research. According to Jobson, sea cucumber tissue cells could replace or supplement HeLa cells, the immortal cell line taken from Henrietta Lacks, a cervical cancer patient, in 1951. This cell line can grow indefinitely in the laboratory but requires carefully controlled sterile conditions.

Furthermore, the scientists extracted HeLa cells without the patient's consent, raising numerous ethical questions. Researchers have long recognized the enormous potential of cells extracted from invertebrates such as sea cucumbers for research that could benefit mammals and humans, without ethical constraints.

Sea cucumber tissue is also useful for studying the state of the ocean, helping to check for rising temperatures or pathogens in seawater. Their ability to heal and survive without external help suggests there are factors that contribute to their robust survival. Jobson shared that the next step is to examine the DNA structure of the sea cucumber tissue cells to see if they age after replication.

( According to vnexpress.net )

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