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Progress on the road to regenerating major body parts, salamander-style, could transform the treatment of amputations and major wounds
March 17, 2008 | 33
Salamanders are the only vertebrates able to regrow lost limbs, as well as many other body parts, throughout their lifetimes--and they can do it repeatedly. Studies of how a limb forms on the salamander have revealed that the process begins with rapid wound closure and a rush of cells from stump tissues to the amputation site....[More]
Epidermal cells form a ridge known as an apical epithelial cap, which generates critical signals that guide the behavior of other cells. Fibroblasts and muscle cells start migrating toward the wound site....[More]
As the blastema grows, it begins to form the outline of the new limb, including the tip that will become the foot. The embryonic cells give rise to new tissues by proliferating and differentiating into bone, muscle, fibroblasts, and so on....[More]
Taking a step-by-step approach toward the goal of regrowing human limbs, scientists are learning how to control the process in natural regenerators, such as the salamander, and how to trigger similar mechanisms in animals that do not normally regrow large body parts....[More]
Causing a new limb to grow from the site of an incision on front of the leg of an axolotl established the basic requirements in salamanders for triggering a limb-regeneration response where normally only simple wound healing would occur....[More]
A normal ankle and foot grew from the "elbow" of a chicken embryo's wing after leg tissue was grafted into the wing bud earlier in the chick's development. Regrowth of the amputated leg segment in an animal that does not naturally regenerate shows that limb-building programs can be reactivated when the wound environment is permissive....[More]
New bone (red stain) growing from the site where a mouses digit tip was amputated (green stain) illustrates the regenerative potential present in mammals. The authors have also shown that a blastema forms at the site where a mouse digit will regenerate....[More]
Natural human regeneration of amputated fingertips has been well documented, including the recent case of Lee Spievak. His middle finger, about an inch of which was severed by a model airplane propeller, is shown after complete healing....[More]
Fibroblast cells (inset) that form scar tissue at a wound site also cause organ-scarring diseases, such as pulmonary fibrosis, which constricts breathing. Learning to prevent scarring in amputation wounds as a prelude to regeneration should also yield treatments for unwanted fibrosis in other body tissues....[More]
Most human tissues are individually able to regenerate, which suggests that regrowing complex body parts is a realistic goal. Regenerating whole limbs will require changing the signals cells receive in the wound environment so that brakes on regrowth are removed and our innate limb-building programs are reactivated....[More]
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33 Comments
Add Commentthanks, i didn't realize the quran was the authority on human limb regeneration
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistamera's another "Quran science miracles" troll, you guys are working hard to be more annoying than creationists, and that's a hard to do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExcellent! I'm glad that someone is doing this kind of work. Understanding the process is a great first step. Being able to regrow limbs will help millions of us. I now dare to hope that I may someday grow my fingers back. THANK YOU!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHave we learned nothing from Amazing Spider-Man's The Lizard ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this">The Body Electric book from the 60s shows it is possible by applying low dc current to the amputated stump. ">The Body Electric shows the experiments. This medical book (which NOT a NEW AGE book even though it looks like it.) shows the experiments conducted and how it was done on many animals in the 1960's by Dr Robert Becker. open this comment to see it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this">The Body Electric
Regrowing limbs was found to be possible with dc current applied to the site of amputation in many animals including salamanders that normally couldn't do it as the ground breaking book "the body electric" written by doctor Becker in the 1960's shows
right click link and open in new tab or window to see it
">The Body Electric
--
Edited by geoguy at 03/19/2008 8:34 PM
This is all talked about in length in the book "Body Electric" by Doctor Robert Becker. This work was done in the early 1960's. Unfortunately, there's no big money "yet", otherwise after 40+ years we'd be in a better position to help those missing limbs/parts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRead the book - you'll get a lot out of it, especially the bibliography.
This is not "new" please review the prior work of Dr. Robert O. Becker in his book "The Body Electric".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPublished in 1985...Am Tired of his original work being "rediscovered" without giving him credit for this pioneering work.
open this book link in a new tab ">The Body Electric right click open in new tab to see it done in the 60s
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this--
Edited by geoguy at 03/20/2008 11:32 PM
How to reactivate an embryonic development program in the so-called "higher" invertebrate?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe our organism requires a voluntary command, for as "higher" animals we are deemed knowledgeable of when, for a priority issue or survival necessity, do we require it done...
Therefore what we need to find is how to establish the necessary communication...
This I think would be a more rewarding research issue, non?
We need to learn what does not work so we do not try the same things again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegenerative healing is interesting and any such research is valuable to future civilization.
I somehow feel a frogs bio-materials cannot be applied to humans. And frog stem cells
probably produce specie related results. Still, understanding advances knowledge.
Personally I believe that quantum computing in conjunction with hologram computing chambers may someday be used for healing such as for human cell, bone and tissue regeneration.
Lay people such as myself, do not understand things in the same way that researchers do. Scientists may understandS "NP, Qubits, quantum bits" or cube bits. Cubed light energy: formula: [dle (light energy)] translates into [5280 x 8.25 = A1= A2 is a suitable formula with integral time] and may be a [S (S1/S2)] compatible system as in a SciAm publication.
byron bowen
Compliments to the authors ! I have high hopes that their work will succeed. Unfortunately I am near the end of my scientific career but would have loved to join the group ! Best wishes:Dr.Kamlander@aon.at
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe all of this is just to make news.the reality is scientist has a lot of fund at there disposal to make fund experiments and to make name.discovering the clues and making is possible are different and quite a distance
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnything which avoids the destruction of human embryos to achieve treatment goals is the right way to go. It is not clear from this article whether these scientists will need to move on to human embryo research. The UK Government is now advocating that approach as wells as that of mixing human and animal gametes much to the horror and revulsion of most UK citizens
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps David Gardiner at el would like to volunteer for fingertip or limb amputation in lieu of embryos or the poor animals that suffer from their curiosity - it seems the scientists would never stoop so low as to injure a human being,and others remark that it would save embyros. No one seems to give one hoot about any of the creatures involved in the experiments. If the scientists would not like to volunteer for their own experiments then they should not be carrying them out on creatures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with APUTATEDSALAMANDER it is a disgrace to subject these beuatiful creatures to the whims of these sadists in white coats. Cut their nuts off I say and see if THEY grow back - at least they wont reproduce their kind !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a wonderful article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have one crackpot suggestion for the researchers:
Have you considered grafting the tip of the amputated finger onto the stump, in the hope of the tip producing the entire missing framework. It seems that may be possible since you will have triggered the existing response.
It might be that you could work your way back up the limb progressively.
The wonderful thing about the attitude of amputatedsalamander is that they are either a lying hypocrite and can be ignored or they will actively reject anything that was developed by animal testing, which puts them into an 1800s level of medicine so they will die much younger than the rest of us. Their children will have higher death rates as well so they will continue to decrease in numbers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is it with the SciAm discussions where a post appears two to eight times? Is it user error or a technical bug? It's kind of annoying.
Ants have a similar phenom. They are larvae as 8 buds(6legs, 2 antennae) but you can "engineer " itinto 8 legs, or even 3 legs, 3 antennae
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat we are seeing here is amazing. Not only for limb regeneration, but for deep wounds. If we could turn back time on the fibroblasts, then people with all kinds of skin problems would be healed. What would this mean for gangrene, incisions for surgery, deep wounds, burn victims, and dare I say, the money stimulating business of anti-aging.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk, for those with the "poor animal" mentality, do you believe the fox that eats that salamander should also be punished with it's nuts cut off because the fox is cruel? Of course not! You would say it's nature, the fox is eating it for survival. Yes, exactly, survival of itself and survival of it's species. Humans too use animals for survival of themselves and their species. And if you say "but it's cruel and we know better, animals aren't cruel" watch a cat with a mouse... it's pretty disturbing. There's many examples of "cruelty" in the animal kingdom from all kinds of species. Survival of your species isn't cruel, it's nature and the cycle of life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPrevious to this article, I read the book by Dr. Robert Becker, titled "t
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Body Electric" in which he discusses the results of such research with salamanders and even the re-growth of human fingers. I am very surprised and disappointed that his name does not appear even once in your article, in view of the impressive work that he has done.
Given that this was the April issue, was some pun intended regarding limb regeneration? To quote the article: "Humans have long wondered how the salamander pulls off this feat." So, it appears way the way we might answer this question if to have us pull off its feet...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTrillions of different forms of life have lived and died on this planet. Most of this number long before we arrived on the scene. I don't think any of these scientists are sadists in that they derive pleasure from experimenting on animals. If we kill a few hundred out of the billion that have existed so we could possibly unlock the secrets in genes that would allow casualties of war, accident victims, birth defects, etc. to have normal productive lives, then why not embrace this idea? It is because of experimentation on animals that we are able to further our true empirical medicinal knowledge. I adore pets. I have had many over the years. But how many people truly have refused medical treatment because they researched the techniques involved in obtaining the medical knowledge of said treatment and found that it was from animal experimentation. Few if any. As for embryos, billions have lived and died on this planet. Overpopulation is in our future. We're just too shortsighted to see it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegenerating human body-parts is the extremely urgent ressearch that USA must relentlessly study and invest all efforts into this field!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is the promise land for all U.S soldiers who have sacrificed their lives and bodies to assist the nation protect the nation and interests as seen!
USA must pour all efforts in this field NOW!
Hundred thousands U.S soldiers come home need limbs and body-parts to turn back to previous physical conditions!
US military must involve in this very wonderful field to assist its sacrificed soldiers now and in the future as well!!!!
I'm about a year too late, but there are a lot of silly people here. Admittedly, the majority seem bright and literate as would be expected, but I'm still disappointed by the general quality of thoughts in these posts. First of all, Fred Cassis, a salamander is not an invertebrate. Secondly, as a long-time pet owner and animal lover, I support animal rights, but many of these comments border on absurd. Maybe we should forget about taking blue-green algae and fish oil supplements and depriving chickens of their eggs; and maybe chimpanzees should think about the pain they're causing so many tropical plant species as they rip off their leaves to self-medicate. To be fair, there is a point where ethics need to be considered, but the oversimplification of the argument her4e renders any real discussion meaningless. Maybe you should stop breathing, too; just think of all those poor bacteria you're gulping down with each gasp of air. Finally, Bill Watson, if you think this is sci fi, you just haven't been paying much attention. Go take a look at Allen Russell's amazing presentation on TEDtalks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/alan_russell_on_regenerating_our_bodies.html
i feel the same way. i lost two of my fingers when i was three years old and i am happy to know that some day i will have them back again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi have lost half of my thumb is it possible stem cell treatment could help it to grow back
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI need this kind of science now...I lost my left lower leg...due to a fast and furious race car driver...except we were not on a race track we were on your typical state 2 lane quicky rd deal to meet the needs (DOT, MPO) of quess what...? BIG BUISNESS...i pray that the supressors of vital information that could help to regenerate the lives and limbs of our loved ones, whether they be fighting for "America's Freedom" (the original reason we fight as Americans)or being sliced up like deli meat every day in the so called "Civil" hospitals from poor nutrition (diebetes), or the 600 children a year from lawn mower accidents...what shall we let prosper as a people...THE Greed of the men(wimps) of this nation, or compassion of those who produce results because of there passion and compassion ...we get to choose...thought for the day "a tree will start to die from the top down...that means a Country will do so also...If the leadership of nation fails The PEOPLE will be in bondage(shackles,hand cuffs)not being able to utilize their gifts...WAIT! we have no walls we're a FREE Nation!!! So lets start acting that way and get over all the materialism and focus on whats really at hand...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi am a newly amputee age 30! If regenerating could be done like this then yes please sign me up right now!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou People make me sick. Tamera is simply saying that according to the Quaran it says that regeneration is indeed possible. It's just as fact worthy than any other "scientific" publication. Atheists lack much intelligence, because it takes an intelligent human being to realise that the Quaran and the Bible were all written by fellow human beings with intelligent thought potential. So tell me Einstein? Who then IS an authority on Regeneration? YOU??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI didn't realise that YOU were an authority on limb generation either.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is Ezikiel. I'm impressed at the two types of research. Dr.Keating is looking at the gene.In how it appears to turn into a stem cell.The various animals that show factual evidence of regeneration. Such as the Salamander .Its ability to consistantly regrow legs.The Zebrafish.The amazing gene called:( MSX1 ).From what I understand it turns off in the human.Stoping regeneration.With the exception of the fingertip in children.I saw notes on national ledger as well.Notes: By Dr.David M.Gardiner .He is a Biologist.Of the University of Calif Irvine.The notes of; Dr.Steve Hammons.That pertain to the salamander. The amazing notes on tadpoles. Yet frogs can't do what a tadpole can do.Also notes on the Hydra snail.This in reguards to regeneration.I also saw notes: http://www.nytimes.com Under missing limb. Notes: By Dr.Susan Bryant . The U.S.military appears to be making strides with ; DARPA.So natural regeneration stem cell looks like it is leading the way. I would hope its by using a patient's own stem cell. Embroyanic is a moral issue. My email is : agapeusmc@yahoo.com Please keep me posted on any new advances.This subject has me facinated. Not to mention it would be very nice to see the girl that lost an arm to a shark in Hawaii get another arm from her own stem cell. In the movieL( SOUL SURFER ). The Bible says: There is nothing impossible to them that believe.Perhaps all the doctors of the world can unite on this toppic and keep each posted hourly.He that studies a situation is wise. Proverbs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin 1994 i cut off the tip of my left index finger accidentally. a doctor sewed it back on but the tissue died and new tissue grew a new tip but later new tissue grew to replace the regrown tip. today the very end of tip is dead to sensation still. has there been any research since 3-17-08 sciam article?
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