The histology of posterior regeneration in the polychaete Chaetopterus variopedatus

After amputation, the wound is closed by the protrusion and lateral expansion of the alimentary canal over the cut muscles and its final fusion with the epidermis laterally after about twenty‐four hours. Associated with the expansion is a divergence of the two adjacent halves of the ventral nerve cord in the last remaining segment. As a result, the whole of the new regenerated lobe behind the ring of the cut epidermis is interneural; i.e., it is an enlargement of the normally small area separating the two nerve cords. Undifferentiated cells, or neuroblasts, are normally located interneurally, and during regeneration these neoblasts proliferate throughout the enlarged interneural zone of the papilla and migrate throughout the lobe. At first the neoblastic mesenchyme filling the lobe is loose and homogeneous, but as the cells settle down against the outer wall they replace the old intestinal cells and assume the characters of new epidermis. Internally, the mass acquires paired cavities, while the cells surrounding the cavities differentiate into muscle, peritoneum, etc. Thus one type of cell gives rise to the whole of the regenerated papilla. These cells are also the mother cells of the gametocytes.