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Researchers from the University of Cologne have found a new use for cnicin, a substance produced in blessed thistle. Blessed thistle (Cnicus benedictus) is a plant in the family Asteraceae and also grows in our climate. For centuries, it has been used as a medicinal herb as an extract or tea, e.g. to aid the digestive system. Researchers at the Center for Pharmacology of University Hospital Cologne and at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cologne have now found a completely novel use for cnicin under the direction of Dr. Philipp Gobrecht and Professor Dr. Dietmar Fischer. Animal...

Researchers have identified a novel macrolide–DEL-1 axis that helps in bone regeneration and new bone formation. This finding may lead to the development of therapeutic agents to treat bone loss disorders. Periodontitis is a serious gum infection that damages the soft tissue and destroys the bone that supports teeth. It is usually the result of poor oral hygiene that leads to bacterial infections. Aging may increase susceptibility to periodontitis by altering immune and regenerative functions. Development endothelial locus-1 (DEL-1), crucial for inflammation resolution and tissue repair, declines with age. The low levels of DEL-1 protein also affect bone regeneration and...

Frogs, unlike their salamander cousins, cannot regenerate lost limbs, but a fascinating new experiment suggests it’s possible for frogs to partially regrow their missing body parts under the right conditions. A paper published today in Science Advances describes a new treatment that made it possible for African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) to partially grow back their amputated hind limbs. The treatment consisted of five different drugs and a wearable device, called “BioDome.” Exposure to this chemical cocktail for just 24 hours facilitated a regenerative period that last for 18 months, according to the research, led by researchers from Tufts University...

Damage to the retina is the leading cause of blindness in humans, affecting millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, the retina is one of the few tissues we humans can't grow back. Unlike us, other animals such as zebrafish are able to regenerate this tissue that's so crucial to our power of sight. We share 70 percent of our genes with these tiny little zebrafish, and scientists have just discovered some of the shared genes include the ones that grant zebrafish the ability to grow back their retinas. "Regeneration seems to be the default status, and the loss of...

When it comes to regeneration, some animals are capable of amazing feats. If you cut off a salamander’s leg, it will grow back. When threatened, some geckos drop their tails to distract their predator, only to regrow them later. Other animals take the process even further. Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones can actually regenerate their bodies after being cut in half. Led by Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Mansi Srivastava, a team of researchers is shedding new light on how animals pull off the feat, along the way uncovering a number of DNA switches that appear to...

Groundbreaking surgery to regrow part of a human bone was carried out on Tuesday at HaEmek Hospital in the northern Israeli town of Afula. Danny, a resident of a nearby kibbutz who had part of his shinbone removed eight months ago after a car accident, was treated in the procedure, which was hailed by medical staff as “science fiction.” During the surgery, the first of its kind in the world, doctors took fat cells from the patient, grew them in a lab and injected them back into his body for them to generate the missing parts of the bone, the...

For this morning, I want you to open the Word of God to the third chapter of John, back to the third chapter of John and the opening ten verses. Now, you who have been with us the last couple of weeks know how important and critical this portion of Scripture is. You know something about it now that we’ve sort of penetrated it at least as far as verse 3. The good news, we’ll finish all the way down to verse 10 this morning. I can’t exactly tell you when but we will finish verse 10. Now I’m going...

p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1px } <p>body { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal } Does Water Baptism Save? A Biblical Refutation of Baptismal Regeneration    Baptismal Regeneration is the teaching which says that water baptism is an essential requirement for salvation.  According to this teaching, if a person desires to be born again (born into God's family) then he must be baptized in water.  Those holding to this doctrine teach that apart from water baptism, a person cannot be saved, cannot be born again, cannot see the kingdom, and cannot enter heaven.     Introduction:...

I grew up in a loving family who attended the Catholic Church regularly. Not just my immediate family, mind you(!) - but my entire family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.) was Catholic! I was a regular participant and played the organ at church and also was a leader in the "folk choir" for most of my teenage years. In short - I was as "Catholic" as they come! I never doubted my faith because I was told to just believe everything the Church taught me without question. The Pope was supreme in his authority, and the priests and nuns were...

Not long ago, it would have sounded like science fiction to discuss growing human organs in the lab or re-writing DNA. Yet today both are realities that will change the world and allow for longer and healthier lives. Already, lab-grown bladders, windpipes and blood vessels have been successfully created and implanted into humans. Most recently, tissue engineering pioneer Dr. Anthony Atala and his team at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced another breakthrough: lab-made vaginas—one of the most complex organs made to date. In four girls with MRKH syndrome, a medical condition in which the vagina and uterus...

Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found in a breakthrough described as “remarkable”. Although fasting diets have been criticized by nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing new white blood cells, which fight off infection. Scientists at the University of Southern California say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy. […] Scientists found that prolonged fasting also reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to aging and...

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have for the first time used regenerative medicine to fully restore an organ in a living animal, a discovery they say may pave the way for similar techniques to be used in humans in future. The University of Edinburgh team rebuilt the thymus - an organ central to the immune system and found in front of the heart - of very old mice by reactivating a natural mechanism that gets shut down with age. The regenerated thymus was not only similar in structure and genetic detail to one in a young mouse, the scientists said,...

Salamanders can regrow entire limbs and regenerate parts of major organs, an ability that relies on their immune systems, research now shows. A study of the axolotl, an aquatic salamander, reveals that immune cells called macrophages are critical in the early stages of regenerating lost limbs. Wiping out these cells permanently prevented regeneration and led to tissue scarring. The findings hint at possible strategies for tissue repair in humans.

An international team of scientists led by Prof Cheng-Ming Chuong from the University of Southern California has discovered unique cellular and molecular mechanisms behind tooth renewal in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis).Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pave the way for tooth regeneration in people. “Humans naturally only have two sets of teeth – baby teeth and adult teeth. Ultimately, we want to identify stem cells that can be used as a resource to stimulate tooth renewal in adult humans who have lost teeth. But, to do that, we must first understand how they renew...

Amphibian's unique proteins cast doubt on existence of latent potential for regeneration. The ability of some animals to regenerate tissue is generally considered to be an ancient quality of all multicellular animals. A genetic analysis of newts, however, now suggests that it evolved much more recently. Tiny and delicate it may be, but the red spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) has tissue-engineering skills that far surpass the most advanced biotechnology labs. The newt can regenerate lost tissue, including heart muscle, components of its central nervous system and even the lens of its eye. Doctors hope that this skill relies on a...

Scientists have created a tadpole that can literally watch what it eats: The tadpole has an eye growing in its gut. Led by developmental biologist Michael Levin of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., the researchers manipulated cells in the tadpole’s gut to take on a specific electrical state. Those cells developed into a fully formed eye. Inducing just the right electrical state in cells can lead to eye growth anywhere on the body, the team reports online December 7 in Development. Bizarre as the experiment sounds, it is a major step toward regenerating complex organs and limbs. One day, Levin...

Also available in (Kindle .mobi ) & (ePub Version) formats To download eBook, click the link and select "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..."------------------------------------------------------------------------ While this is by no means an exhaustive list, the following are Christians in the course of the history of the Church who believed and taught monergistic regeneration: (we will add to this list as more resources are found) Scripture, Augustine, Council of Orange, Martin Luther (who considered this doctrine the heart of the Reformation), John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, John Owen, John Flavel, Thomas Manton, William Gurnall, Thomas Watson,...

UC Davis Doctor grows new fingertip. I have never heard of this before. Back in January Deepa Kulkarni had the tip of her finger cut-off when a car door slammed into her hand. The tip of her pinky was on the ground. Some time later she found Dr. Malathi Srinivasan at the University of California-Davis Medical Center. The idea of 'tissue regeneration' is new. "The therapy involved cleaning out the finger and removing scar tissue -- a process called debridement - and then dipping her finger into MatriStem wound powder."

Conventional dental implants are typically screwed into the patient’s jaw bone, require visits to several types of clinicians, take two to six months to heal, and are still subject to failure. Not exactly an ideal solution to missing teeth. A professor of dental medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, however, has devised a technique wherein implants could be grown in the empty tooth socket, right inside the patient’s mouth. Dr. Jeremy Mao started with a tooth-shaped scaffold made of microchannelled natural materials, infused with a growth factor. In an animal-model study, he placed that structure in a recipient’s empty tooth...

For visitors to Monergism.com who are considering the purchase of the ESV Study Bible, the following may be of particular interest to you. Ever since the ESV Study Bibles have come out I have been reading through some of the notes on various texts and skimming the theological articles so I could report back to you what I found. As you might have guessed, one of the first things looked for was whether the ESV Study Bible would take a clear Christ-honoring stand on the vital doctrinal issue of regeneration. Expecting to find an amorphous commentary that neither monergist nor...