Axolotls can regrow entire limbs, parts of their heart, sections of their spinal cord, and even portions of their brain, and they do it without forming scar tissue, which is why labs from Vienna to Boston keep colonies of them alive specifically to figure out what humans lost
Axolotls regrow limbs, heart tissue, spinal cord and brain without forming scars. From Vienna's Hand2 discovery to a 2026 PNAS paper on the SP8 gene, here's why labs worldwide keep the Mexican salamander alive.