Frogs: Why they are so rivet-ing in research

In the Wheeler lab, we use a species of frogs known as ‘Xenopus’ (pictured below) as a vital model organism in our research. Our frogs are quite sweet-looking, but nothing like Kermit. These model organisms are researched extensively our lab to help us understand real-life biological systems. In the Wheeler lab, we use fertilised eggs that we harvest from the female frogs; these eggs would eventually grow into tadpoles, so really we use frog embryos!

Frog embryos are great because they’re large compared to other animals’ embryos meaning we can see them on the bench, although to see them develop and grow in finer detail you need to use a microscope. Frogs also lay hundreds of eggs, giving high numbers of embryos for research, rather than say a mouse where only 1-2 embryos may be given. Using frog embryos is also uninvasive, as the eggs are collected in a petri dish on the bench and the adult animals are not harmed.

In the Wheeler lab, we’re fascinated by developmental biology. Developmental biology is the study of the processes by which cells and tissues grow into animals or plants. More specifically, the Wheeler lab is interested in the development of the neural crest. The neural crest is important part of the embryo as it gives rise to the craniofacial cartilage, the peripheral nervous system, bone and many other tissues. We’re interested in how the neural crest develops so that we can understand a group of diseases called neurocristopathies. Neurocristopathies arise due to problems in neural crest development. Such neurocristopathies include: craniofacial defects such as cleft palate, Hirschsprung's disease (a nervous system defect), CHARGE syndrome (a cardiac defect), but there are also many others.

Xenopus embryos NRP-122 Image source: NRP Image library

By studying how cells and tissues develop in the first instance, we can gain a better understanding of how to regenerate them. This is why many applications of developmental biology research are in regenerative medicine. Knowing what makes a cell within an embryo turn into a particular type of cell (e.g what makes a bone cell precursor turn into bone), will help scientists programme cells correctly when developing stem cell technology. This could be beneficial for certain therapies in the future, for instance in  spinal cord trauma, where the cells do not repair properly on their own.

So, you have now got a good idea of how amazing frogs are and how they can be used in research. Studying frog embryos will give great insights into how embryos, cells and tissues develop and lead to advances in the field of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine applications.