Posted on 09/01/2005 4:12:01 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
It's a miracle: mice regrow hearts
And when cells from the test mouse are injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to regenerate, the US-based researchers say.
Their discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up a new era in medicine.
Details of the research will be presented next week at a scientific conference on ageing titled Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, at Cambridge University in Britain.
The research leader, Ellen Heber-Katz, professor of immunology at the Wistar Institute, a US biomedical research centre, said the ability of the mice at her laboratory to regenerate organs appeared to be controlled by about a dozen genes.
Professor Heber-Katz says she is still researching the genes' exact functions, but it seems almost certain humans have comparable genes.
"We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow," she said.
"It is quite remarkable. The only organ that did not grow back was the brain.
"When we injected fetal liver cells taken from those animals into ordinary mice, they too gained the power of regeneration. We found this persisted even six months after the injection."
Professor Heber-Katz made her discovery when she noticed the identification holes that scientists punch in the ears of experimental mice healed without any signs of scarring in the animals at her laboratory.
The self-healing mice, from a strain known as MRL, were then subjected to a series of surgical procedures. In one case the mice had their toes amputated -- but the digits grew back, complete with joints.
In another test some of the tail was cut off, and this also regenerated. Then the researchers used a cryoprobe to freeze parts of the animals' hearts, and watched them grow back again. A similar phenomenon was observed when the optic nerve was severed and the liver partially destroyed.
The researchers believe the same genes could confer greater longevity and are measuring their animals' survival rate. However, the mice are only 18 months old, and the normal lifespan is two years so it is too early to reach firm conclusions.
Scientists have long known that less complex creatures have an impressive ability to regenerate. Many fish and amphibians can regrow internal organs or even whole limbs. The Sunday Times
29aug05
SCIENTISTS have created "miracle mice" that can regenerate amputated limbs or damaged vital organs, making them able to recover from injuries that would kill or permanently disable normal animals.
The experimental animals are unique among mammals in their ability to regrow their heart, toes, joints and tail.
Bingo. This could be as big a development as the discovery of penicillin. Of course, if it leads to the average human lifetime being extended to biblical dimensions all sorts of social complications will ensue.
I once read a thread on FR about human tissue regeneration. I can't find the thread now. Posters were claiming that tips of toes and fingers can grow back, especially babies'. Don't try it at home though.
Evolution and selection would have allowed this to occur in nature if it was as easy as the regulation of six genes.
Tremendous survivability advantage and since we don't see it in nature for complex organisms, I don't believe these results.
I do remember a news story of someone who had two arms re-attached after a horrible accident at a farm. I recall that he did all of the right things instead of panicking. It was a very big news story at the time.
Ping.
Let me be the first one to bow to our new mouse overlords.
I, for one, admire your superior groveling skills.
Yeah my doc and I marveled. Don't need surgery as long as my bod keeps doing it's magic.
To combat two blockages in one blood vessel I completed two seven-week,one hour per day sessions of EECP,(Enhanced External Counter-Pulsation).
Bingo! New capillary growth has by-passed the blockages and my angina is gone. The blockages are still there and may have to be treated surgically someday,but for now I'm in good shape.
I live for the day! Come on now!
Thanks for the ping!
How true. This age of Man playing at being God is more dangerous to the future of our species than any war, plague, famine or natural disaster in history. Hubris will be our undoing.
It's alive!
The first thing that occurred to me was that they're building an unkillable mouse. The next thing was that we're going to be up to our armpits in mice before long.
Obviously, we need to transfer this technology to cats ASAP!
Viking Kitties, NOW!
Check my profile. So do I.
John Bobbitt?
Yeah, the article did specifically mention "joints".
I wonder..............
Right. And all that is inside of [supposedly] a single standardized language.
Fer Shizzle!......
They did say the optic nerve came back. So maybe?
We were still talking about this being 20 or 30 years away.
From a healthcare point of view maybe that's still true.
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