Biomaterial Database

Isolation of a substance activating foot formation in hydra. 1977

C J Grimmelikhuijzen, and H C Schaller

We have developed an assay for a substance from hydra that accelerates foot regeneration in the animal. This substance is specific for the foot as evidenced by the following findings: (1) It is present in the animal as a steep gradient descending from foot to head, paralleling the foot-forming potential of the tissue (2) It does not accelerate head regeneration, nor do the head factors of hydra discovered by Schaller (1973) and Berking (1977) accelerate foot regeneration. We propose that the foot-activating substance is a morphogen responsible for foot formation in hydra. The foot activator can be extracted from hydra tissue with methanol and separated from other known morphogens of hydra by gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography. A substance with similar biological and physicochemical properties can be isolated from sea anemones.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009024	Morphogenesis	The development of anatomical structures to create the form of a single- or multi-cell organism. Morphogenesis provides form changes of a part, parts, or the whole organism.
D012038	Regeneration	The physiological renewal, repair, or replacement of tissue.	Endogenous Regeneration,Regeneration, Endogenous,Regenerations
D004305	Dose-Response Relationship, Drug	The relationship between the dose of an administered drug and the response of the organism to the drug.	Dose Response Relationship, Drug,Dose-Response Relationships, Drug,Drug Dose-Response Relationship,Drug Dose-Response Relationships,Relationship, Drug Dose-Response,Relationships, Drug Dose-Response
D006133	Growth Substances	Signal molecules that are involved in the control of cell growth and differentiation.	Mitogens, Endogenous,Endogenous Mitogens
D006829	Hydra	A genus of freshwater polyps in the family Hydridae, order Hydroida, class HYDROZOA. They are of special interest because of their complex organization and because their adult organization corresponds roughly to the gastrula of higher animals.	Hydras
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia