Research on Chimeric Antler

Transplantation of allogenic organs is the life-saving procedure for the patients who suffer from end-stage organ failure, but the recipients have to live with life-long immunosuppression therapy, even though donor organs currently face severe shortage worldwide. Antlers are male secondary sexual appendages and the only mammalian organ that once lost can fully regenerate from the permanent bony protuberances, or pedicles. Li et al co-transplanted AP and deer skin onto the nude mice, which caused pedicle-antler-like nodules to develop and the velvet-skin-wrapped apical parts became fully calcified following the injection of testosterone. Yet, besides its amazing ability to rapidly establish recirculation with the host blood system, it retained all its original development potential and positional memory in an alien environment