Psolus fabricii Tissue Survives 3 Years After Amputation, Raising Biological Immortality Question
Updated
Updated · Scientific American · May 27
Psolus fabricii Tissue Survives 3 Years After Amputation, Raising Biological Immortality Question
1 articles · Updated · Scientific American · May 27
More than 3 years after amputation, detached Psolus fabricii tissue was still alive in seawater tanks, healing wounds, growing and responding to touch, according to a study in Science Advances.
Researchers said the fragments do not regenerate into new sea cucumbers, but they keep key life functions going through cell division, immune defenses, chemical protection and either dissolved amino acids or self-cannibalized muscle for fuel.
The finding stands out because severed tissue in humans, lizards, salamanders and even other sea cucumbers decays quickly; the next-best sea cucumber tissue in the study died before 3.5 months.
Outside experts said calling the tissue biologically immortal is premature until tests show whether telomeres remain stable through repeated cell division, though they called the sustained coordination of living processes remarkable.
The work leaves an evolutionary puzzle: nonreproductive scraps appear able to persist for years, suggesting self-sustaining sea cucumber fragments may already be drifting through Atlantic and Arctic waters.
Are 'zombie' sea cucumber fragments already drifting in our oceans, living on their own?
Can the 'immortal' tissue of a sea cucumber hold the key to slowing human aging?
If an animal part can live for years on its own, must we redefine what an 'organism' is?