Cell division during intercalary regeneration in the cockroach leg

Abstract

In a series of grafting operations on cockroach legs, epidermal cells from different positions or from the same position on the circumference of the femur were placed together. Where cells from different positions were confronted, new cuticular structures corresponding to the positions which would normally have lain between them were formed during the following moults. At the control junctions, where cells from the same positions were placed together, no new structures were formed. Grafted legs were examined histologically at various times after the operation. The events following grafting fell into four phases: wound healing--when epidermal cells migrated over the wound to re-establish epidermal continuity and cells adjacent to the wound divided to compensate for cell emigration; intercalation--when cell divisions took place at the host-graft borders where there was a positional discrepancy; proliferation--when the general growth of the epidermis occurred by widespread cell division; cuticle secretion--when apolysis occurred, cell division ceased, and cuticle secretion began. The results show that intercalary regeneration is associated with local cell division at the graft-host borders, and that these divisions are not confined to the normal proliferative phase of the moult cycle, but begin much earlier in the cycle, as soon as wound healing is complete. These results support epimorphic models (such as the Polar Coordinate Model) of pattern regulation, where change of positional value is tied to cell division, but they do not discount the possibility of a limited initial morphallactic phase.