Studying Stem Cell Biology in Intact and Whole-Body Regenerating Hydra by Flow Cytometry.

The freshwater Hydra polyp is a versatile model to study whole-body regeneration from a developmental as well as a cellular point of view. The outstanding regenerative capacities of Hydra are based on its three populations of adult stem cells located in the central body column of the animal. There, these three populations, gastrodermal epithelial, epidermal epithelial, and interstitial, continuously cycle in homeostatic conditions, and their activity is locally regulated after mid-gastric bisection.

Cellular, Metabolic, and Developmental Dimensions of Whole-Body Regeneration in .

Here we discuss the developmental and homeostatic conditions necessary for regeneration. is characterized by populations of adult stem cells paused in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, ready to respond to injury signals. The body column can be compared to a blastema-like structure, populated with multifunctional epithelial stem cells that show low sensitivity to proapoptotic signals, and high inducibility of autophagy that promotes resistance to stress and starvation.

Deficient autophagy in epithelial stem cells drives aging in the freshwater cnidarian .

possesses three distinct stem cell populations that continuously self-renew and prevent aging in However, sexual animals from the cold-sensitive strain develop an aging phenotype upon gametogenesis induction, initiated by the loss of interstitial stem cells. Animals stop regenerating, lose their active behaviors and die within 3 months. This phenotype is not observed in the cold-resistant strain To dissect the mechanisms of aging, we compared the self-renewal of epithelial stem cells in these two strains and found it to be irreversibly reduced in aging but sustained in non-aging We also identified a deficient autophagy in epithelial cells, with a constitutive deficiency in autophagosome formation as detected with the mCherry-eGFP-LC3A/B autophagy sensor, an inefficient response to starvation as evidenced by the accumulation of the autophagosome cargo protein p62/SQSTM1, and a poorly inducible autophagy flux upon proteasome inhibition.

Combining BrdU-Labeling to Detection of Neuronal Markers to Monitor Adult Neurogenesis in Hydra.

The nervous system is produced and maintained in adult Hydra through the continuous production of nerve cells and mechanosensory cells (nematocytes or cnidocytes). De novo neurogenesis occurs slowly in intact animals that replace their dying nerve cells, at a faster rate in animals regenerating their head as a complete apical nervous system is built in few days. To dissect the molecular mechanisms that underlie these properties, a precise monitoring of the markers of neurogenesis and nematogenesis is required.