PARIS: The African spiny mouse, a desert rodent that has become an exotic pet, can shed up to 60 percent of the skin on its back and fully re-grow the lost tissue, scientists reported on Wednesday.
Understanding the trick could one day help burns victims in need of scar-free skin regeneration, they hope.
The spiny mouse (Acomys) is well-known for eluding hunters by shedding its tail skin, rather as lizards jettison their tail.
Exploring this phenomenon, biologists led by Ashley Seifert at the University of Florida in Gainesville found that the skin-shedding is even greater than expected.
When they picked up two wild-caught specimens, Acomys kempi and Acomys percivali, the mice lost up to 60 percent of the skin on their backs when they were grabbed by hand in a normal manner.
Closer inspection showed the skin to be remarkably fragile, requiring 77 less energy to tear than skin from its cousin the house mouse, Seifert’s team reported in the journal Nature.
But how the animal is able to shed such a big area of skin so easily remains a mystery.
The researchers were unable to find any breakage point. The molecular or biomechanical properties are unclear.
Even more impressive are the mouse’s healing properties. Within 30 days of the skin shedding, a double dermal layer had re-grown, with new follicles and no sign of so-called wound-bed tissue, a precursor of scarring.
The regenerative capacity extended to the mouse’s ears, where a small punched hole became completely recovered with healthy tissue, including sebaceous glands and cartilage.
“Mammals may retain a higher capacity for regeneration than was previously believed,” said the study. “Acomys may prove useful in identifying mechanisms to promote regeneration in lieu of fibrosis and scarring.”
Mouse research may help heal scars
Mouse research may help heal scars
Review: ‘Sorry, Baby’ by Eva Victor
- Victor makes a deliberate narrative choice; we never witness the violence of what happens to her character
There is a bravery in “Sorry, Baby” that comes not from what the film shows, but from what it withholds.
Written, directed by, and starring Eva Victor, it is one of the most talked-about indie films of the year, winning the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance and gathering momentum with nominations, including nods at the Golden Globes and Gotham Awards.
The film is both incisive and tender in its exploration of trauma, friendship, and the long, winding road toward healing. It follows Agnes, a young professor of literature trying to pick up the pieces after a disturbing incident in grad school.
Victor makes a deliberate narrative choice; we never witness the violence of what happens to her character. The story centers on Agnes’ perspective in her own words, even as she struggles to name it at various points in the film.
There is a generosity to Victor’s storytelling and a refusal to reduce the narrative to trauma alone. Instead we witness the breadth of human experience, from heartbreak and loneliness to joy and the sustaining power of friendship. These themes are supported by dialogue and camerawork that incorporates silences and stillness as much as the power of words and movement.
The film captures the messy, beautiful ways people care for one another. Supporting performances — particularly by “Mickey 17” actor Naomi Ackie who plays the best friend Lydia — and encounters with strangers and a kitten, reinforce the story’s celebration of solidarity and community.
“Sorry, Baby” reminds us that human resilience is rarely entirely solitary; it is nurtured through acts of care, intimacy and tenderness.
A pivotal scene between Agnes and her friend’s newborn inspires the film’s title. A single, reassuring line gently speaks a pure and simple truth: “I know you’re scared … but you’re OK.”
It is a reminder that in the end, no matter how dark life gets, it goes on, and so does the human capacity to love.
