Immunochemical Studies of Muscle Proteins in Mature and Regenerating Limbs of the Adult Newt,Triturus viridescens

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Abstract
Qualitative and quantitative changes which occur in proteins and other macromolecules during differentiation and growth in embryonic development may be detected and defined by immunochemical means (Ebert, 1954, 1959). Similar changes must also occur during regeneration of a part, such as the limb of the salamander, since, after an initial period of cellular breakdown and ‘dedifferentiation’, regeneration repeats in many ways the embryonic processes. There is the appearance of embryonic-like cells of the blastema which then multiply rapidly and differentiate. In the present investigation immunochemical techniques of studying the changing protein spectrum during development are applied to regeneration in the newt. During the course of this study an analysis of muscle protein regeneration in the larva was published (DeHaan, 1956). Following initial exploration of the various protein systems, the present study was restricted to the changes in the dedifferentiation and development of the contractile proteins, actomyosin and myosin.