The Effect of Arthrospira platensis on the Regeneration Rate of Dugesia tigrina

ISBN: 979-8-89480-841-3


Aplastic anemia, a blood disorder that is rare and deadly, affects ~300-900 people in the U.S., with 30 to 40. Although this has specific treatments, there are no treatments from an organic source. As a result of this, the research aims to investigate whether arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) could be a treatment for this disorder using Dugesia tigrina (planaria) as a model, due to stem cells being similar to humans. Therefore, the experiment was done by having a control group (no spirulina) and three experimental groups (spirulina), where their regeneration rate was measured. Additionally, due to time constraints, day 9 for the control group and day 6 for the experimental groups were when the experiment stopped, which led to another limitation, unequal days between the control group and experimental groups. Each group had two sections, the heads section and the tails section, because the planarias were dissected in half. It resulted in the head section in the control group having the highest regeneration rate. Whereas, in the tails section, the experimental group, with a 0.2% spirulina concentration, had the highest regeneration rate. Overall, the hypothesis was deemed inconclusive because the data varied, which means that spirulina has still not been proven or disproven to be an organic option that could improve cell division in this organism.

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