Literature Review Part (B): Overall Literature Review

Humans have a slow regeneration speed on their wound or damaged parts of the body especially the hepatocytes cell. Hepatocytes are the liver cells in the body which able to regenerate or restore 75% of the damaged liver cells. However, the regeneration process takes a relative long time period to heal up the wound. During the organ or cell transplantation, there are a few limitations such as availability of donor tissue and risk of rejection. Unlike starfish, starfish can regrow its arms/legs without finding donor or help from others. The regenerated arms/legs do not affect its biological movement mechanism [1]. The scientists say that the cells in starfish are different from humans which are having high healing capacity.

Hence, it is possible to study more about the regenerative process of starfish and apply into the medicine and surgery field. It helps to improve the healing capacity of humans and without worrying much on the risk of rejection. If humans able to heal the damaged cells by themselves, then disease such as AIDS, cancer cell or EBOLA could be cured in the future.

Starfish has a multi-layered self-organization mechanism that controlled by a layer of tube feet under its arms. The tube feet are able to sense obstacles and avoid them by moving its arms with muscle contraction and expansion. The tube feet movement is called as the self-organization of behavior which allows starfish to avoid danger situation and balancing. The tube feet transmit information to its central nervous system to produce coordinated behavior [2].

The multi-layered self-organization mechanism is introduced in the previous paragraph. It is possible to apply in health care which can protect our skin from any danger situation such as heat source, electric shock and etc. It is located at the outer surface of our skin and send the stimuli to our brain for instant reaction. It is extremely useful for workers who work at construction site or high risk places. It is a wild idea and still under research study, thus more information is needed to produce this product.

Reference:

[1] Rachel S.C. Friedman and Diane S. Krause. “Regeneration and Repair: New Finding in Stem Cell Research and Aging”. Longevity, Regeneration and Optimal Health, vol. 1172, pag. 88-94, Aug. 2009.

[2] M. Migita, E. Mizukami and Y. P. Gunji. “Flexibility in Starfish Behavior by Multi-Layered Mechanism of Self-Organization”. Biosystems, vol 82, issue 2, pag. 107-115, Nov. 2005.

Literature Review Part (A): Regeneration of A Starfish!

Good day peeps! =)

Have you heard of the regeneration ability acquired by a starfish?

Let us take a look closer at this regeneration characteristic of a starfish! =)

Starfish are not fish, but rather marine invertebrates or "echinoderms" in the class Asteroidea. Therefore, scientists prefer to call them sea stars. 

There are approximately 1,800 different species of Asteroidea. They are known for their ability to regenerate amputated limbs and are characterized by flexible arms attached to a central disc. 

The central disc is essential to regeneration in nearly all sea star species.

In general, starfish regenerate by way of a three-stage process. 


Firstly, the repair stage heals the creature’s exposed wound. 

This phase is followed by the regenerative stage, in which the body of the echinoderm produces new cells and begins new growth.

The final phase is referred to as the advanced regenerative stage, during which significant cell proliferation starts. Regeneration can take anywhere from several months to years. Growth factors, which are neurally derived, determine the processes responsible for the formation of patterns during the last stage. 

If anything intervenes or causes a deviation from such patterns while the sea star is regenerating, then the end result will be probably deformed. The figure below shows the regeneration of starfishes.

Central disc - Most species of sea stars must split part of their central disc along with a limb for regeneration to occur. It is very unlikely that a severed limb will be able to regenerate into a full-grown starfish unless it is already attached to at least a portion of the central disc. 

Please watch the ffollowing video to understand better the regeneration of a starfish!

Isn't it amazing that a starfish could regenerate back it's amputated/lost limb! Such a cool characteristic!

That's all for today! =)

STARFISH, lighting the way to biomimicry!

Till' next time! =)

Literature Review Part (A): Reproduction of A Starfish!

Hi!

Do you know that starfish reproduces through both sexually and asexually? 

If you don't, then you'll find out more about it as you read on! =)

The sexual reproduction of stafishes involves few stages which are spawning, egg stage, larval stage and juvenile stage!

Spawning means that the sex cells are released into the water. Starfish gather in groups to reproduce, which increases the likelihood the sperm and eggs will find each other.

Egg stage - when the eggs become fertilized they develop into zygotes. Some species of starfish brood their eggs after they're fertilized. They may sit over their eggs, or form a brooding basket in which the eggs are sheltered. 

The eggs may be held on the starfish's central disk or in sacs between the arms. Once the eggs hatch they are released into the open ocean to drift with the current and search for food.

In the larval stage the starfish is a miniscule, jelly-like blob that floats around feeding on microscopic flora and fauna. These larva are too small to be seen with the naked eye. The starfish larva metamorphosizes through several stages until it develops into a juvenile!

In the last stage of larval development the starfish abandons its free-floating planktonic lifestyle for a benthic (surface-dwelling) existence. The larva anchors itself to a surface and transforms into the juvenile stage. A juvenile starfish looks like a small version of an adult.

At about two years old the starfish is grown enough to be considered an adult starfish and can begin the reproductive stage of its life! The sexual reproduction of starfishes can be represented in the figure below!

What about asexual reproduction? 

In asexual reproduction, a starfish's arm is removed along with part of the central disk (the center of the body from which the arms radiate), a whole new sea star can form from that detached piece! 

Because two starfishes have been formed from one, this is considered asexual reproduction!

So, that's all on the reproduction of a starfish and knowing how a starfish multiply their species! The asexual reproduction of starfishes can be represented in the figure below!

STARFISH, lighting the way to biomimicry!

Till' next time! =)

What Does Starfish Eat? What Is The Feeding Mechanism?

Hello, it's us again! =)

Are you thinking what does a starfish eat and what is the feeding mechanism? 

If yes, you're in for a treat as we'll be diving into the types of food starfishes eat and its feeding mechanism! =)

Starfish are powerful hunters and primarily feed on mollusks. Their main sources of food are clams, oysters sand dollars and mussels, which are usually attached to rocks or otherwise unable to escape quickly. They also eat snails and injured fish, when they can find them!

Some species find decomposing plants and animals in the water or on the beach and consume them, making for much easier prey but lower nutritional value and increased competition from birds. Other starfish hunt in the water, catching sponges, plankton and even coral for their dinner!

Specifically for Chocolate chip starfish, they are scavengers, eating foods that have dropped to the bottom of the tank, but they are also predators and will eat corals, as well as killing and eating many small animals, even snails. You can feed your chocolate chip star fish meaty foods such as muscles, shrimp and squid! Yummy! =)

So how do starfishes eat?

The truth is that starfish are actually very clever at staying alive. Their most vulnerable parts, including the mouth and stomach, actually face the rocks or ground they cling to. 

When a starfish has captured a mollusk, it first wraps itself around the creature tightly. Then it uses its powerful arms to break the muscles that hold a mollusk's shell together, exposing the meaty interior. 

After that, the starfish actually pushes its stomach out of its mouth and eats the contents of the mollusk whole. When it's done, the starfish re-swallows its stomach and begins to digest its meal more fully!

The starfish is eating the shrimp! Yummy! =)

As the shrimp is fed to the starfish, the starfish uses the tube feet to move the shrimp towards the stomach.

Here's a video for you guys to check out on how a starfish eats a shrimp!

Enjoy the video guys!

Hope y'all are well-fed with the information on what does starfish eat and their feeding mechanism!

STARFISH, lighting the way to biomimicry!

Till' next time! =)

Anatomy of A Starfish!

Greetings to All Starfish Lovers!

Before diving into knowing more about a starfish, let's begin by with the ANATOMY of a STARFISH!

The Anatomy of A Starfish!

Locomotion of a starfish!

A starfish is a unique animal that lives on the seafloor. As everyone knows, seafloor is never always flay but usually consist of plenty of corals and rocks. Due to this nature, animal that lives under it tends to have Benthic locomotion in order to adapt to the Geography.

Not always like that

But like that

So, what is a Benthic locomotion?

Benthic loomotion describes the movement of animals that utilizes tube like legs which could create vacuum through contracting their muscles. This allow the animal to cling to the wall of rocks or coral easily. With this, waves of tube feets could moves along the surface by contracting and relaxing their muscles which allows the animal to moves along. Based on the criteria, starfish is categorized as animal that utilizes Benthic locomotion. Check out the GIF image below!

Illustration of a single tube feet moving
Source: http://www.madreporite.com/science/tubefootanimation.gif

Below shows our chocolate chip starfish moving using its unique Benthic locomotion system!

*Fast Forwarded* because they walk quite slowly!