Regeneration in arthropods and amphibians follows an analogous principle making comparisons between the two phyla possible.
Larval arthropods and amphibians possess powers of epimorphic regeneration which wane for many species of these phyla with the completion o f metamorphosis or the cessation of moulting. In those species which retain, post-maturationally, the ability to form a regenerative blastema, larval characteristics are carried into the adult and reproductive stages of these organisms. These include many species of: urodeles, ametabolous insects, crustaceans, myriapods and arachnids. The long-standing distinction between embryonic regulation and "true" epimorphosis would thus appear to be a difference of degree rather than kind.
The thesis presented in these pages, then, is that the ability to post-maturationally regenerate exists as a function of histogenetic juvenilization. Hormonal preadaptation is responsible for the regulatory transcriptional reexpression of larval-like regulation in neoteny, providing the conditions favorable for regeneration in the reproductive stages of these organisms. The pluripotency of blastemal cells can thus be understood as a product of neotenous morphogenesis.
R6sum~. La r6g6n6ration chez les amphibiens est analogue ~. celle des arthropodes, permettant la comparaison de ces deux embranchements.
Les arthropodes et les amphibiens larvaires poss~dent des pouvoirs de r6gdn6ration 6pimorphiques qui d6croissent, pour plusieurs especes de ces embranchements, Mrs de l'ach~vement de la m6tamorphose ou de la cessation de la mue. Les esp~ces qui conservent, β’ ~ postmaturit6, la capacit~ de former un blast,me r~g6n~ratif -e.g., plusieurs esp~ces d'urodbles, les insectes am6taboles, crustacds, myriapodes, et quelques espbces d'arachnides ont des caractdristiques larvaires que l'on retrouve dgalement dans les 6tapes adultes et reproductives de ces organismes. Alors, la distinction entre la r6gulation embryonnaire et l'dpimorphose "r~elle", reconnue depuis longtemps, serait une diffdrence de degr6 plut6t que de genre.
La th6se dnonce que la capacit6 de r~g~ndration "h postmaturit6 existe en fonction de I'histogenbse larvaire, La pluripotence des cellules blastdmatiques peut alors ~tre reconnue comme le produit d'une morphogenbse ndotdnique.