Humans could regrow body parts like some amphibians

Humans could regrow body parts like some amphibians

www.telegraph.co.uk

Researchers have found that the gene p21 appears to block the healing power still enjoyed by some creatures including amphibians but lost through evolution to all other animals.

By turning off p21, the process can be miraculously switched back on.

Academics from The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia found that mice lacking the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Have we finally figured out how to re-grow limbs
Humans could regrow their own body parts like some amphibians, claim scientists

Unlike typical mammals, which heal wounds by forming a scar, these mice begin by forming a blastema, a structure associated with rapid cell growth.

According to the Wistar researchers, the loss of p21 causes the cells of these mice to behave more like regenerating embryonic stem cells rather than adult mammalian cells. This means they act as if they creating rather thane mending the body.

This is very exciting. By looking at the related threads from 12 months and longer ago you will see that they have been working furiously on this and have finally got results.

Not only that, they have found out how to do it.

Imagine a 'get well soon' switch in our body that they can turn on and off.

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The fact that the article states they’re already studying how to do such a thing while minimizing side effects really excites me. Yet another incredible step toward humans being able to hope for longer, healthier lives in the future. Always great to hear.

I could easily be mistaken, but couldn't this possibly also be a precurser for folks to get cancer? What is to tell the body completely what is damaged and what is not so say if you turn off that gene, couldn't it theoretically turn almost any cell into a free radical cell that will never stop reproducing? Time shall tell!

reply to post by SlapBassist531


Good point.

I hope when the article says they think it could be done with minimal "side affects" it includes possibilities like this.

reply to post by SilentShadow


they have been able to regrow cut off rabbit and rat limbs using charged electro magnetic feilds and current, it all relates to creating a blastema on the wound site and artificially 'through electrical means' devolving the local cells back into stem cells so they can regrow the limb, it's a process that frogs can acheive if their skin does not heal over their wound, and salamanders as well as other animals on earth actually can have a limb cut off and regrown without any help involved or thought on the animals part, it's all in this book

this book is my information source

There has to be a reason why natural selection selected to remove our ability to regrow body parts right?

I don't think the risk of cancer is the only side effect. The p21 gene must be beneficial in more ways than that considering how almost every animal besides amphibians have had this ability removed.

And sadly some drug manufacture will patent the process before anyone can have the gene turned back on or blocked.

I hope not but the way drug companys screw the public, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

There's actually an army scientist who invented a powder that can re-grow limbs. I started to research this after seeing the movie "Wanted"(with the miracle wax- baths and such). The guy was even on an Oprah episode talking about re-constructive surgery, and he re-grew his own lost finger. Here's a link to what i'm talking about:

www.hightech-edge.com...

reply to post by SilentShadow

This is good, body parts regrown this has happened before ask Lee Spievak who sliced his finger off with the propeller of a model aeroplane, his brother Alan

Mr Speivak's brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder.

sent him some "pixie dust"

Source: This powder is a medical product called extracellular matrix. Made from pig bladders, it is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons.

The man who grew back his finger tip with video

Looks like Alan Spievak has already found what can Turn Off this p21.

"While we are just beginning to understand the repercussions of these findings, perhaps, one day we'll be able to accelerate healing in humans by temporarily inactivating the p21 gene.

Hello are these people talking to each other, probably not


Zelong.

reply to post by Hyzera


What good is natural selection when the world is all fiddle foddle?

Hmm?

Amphibians and reptiles main reason to re grow limbs is because of protection. They easily drop a tail for example to the predator eats the tail and not them. Thus they need the re growth as protection. Mammals, birds, etc, did not utilize that form of a way to escape from harm.

Fasanating to have humans with the ability to re grow a chopped finger or lost arm even.

young children can fully regrow a finger if it is not cut off past the first knuckle, i beleive this ability is dumbed down after aging

ill be a test person .
need a new finger and wors yet a new right eye.
so id be glade to give it a shot

Originally posted by indigothefish
young children can fully regrow a finger if it is not cut off past the first knuckle, i beleive this ability is dumbed down after aging

Really? I have never heard of this. Any source for us to read?

Originally posted by SlapBassist531
I could easily be mistaken, but couldn't this possibly also be a precurser for folks to get cancer? What is to tell the body completely what is damaged and what is not so say if you turn off that gene, couldn't it theoretically turn almost any cell into a free radical cell that will never stop reproducing? Time shall tell!

That's an interesting point, but you're confusing the nature of the two very different types of compounds.
Free radicals are, by their nature, unstable. Their instability comes from an electron imbalance which causes them to scavenge other compounds for their electrons to stabilize themselves, which causes a cascading effect that destabilizes multiple compounds. Free radicals don't 'reproduce', but they do influence the instability of other compounds. Cancer does reproduce, because it is a virus and has a genetic code that enables it to replicate and fight the immune system of it's host. A free radical is not alive like a virus is and therefore doesn't have a guided behavior.
A blastema is a group of undifferentiated cells, which are already stable, yet waiting for the genetic instructions that guide them to assume a particular form.
If anything, they can be guided to become immune modulating cells which can outnumber and fight off something like cancer.
Truly, it is fascinating.

note: edited to expand content

[edit on 3/17/10 by Matthew Dark]

Originally posted by indigothefish
young children can fully regrow a finger if it is not cut off past the first knuckle, i beleive this ability is dumbed down after aging

As much as I would like to believe this, I don't.
There is absolutely no finite scientific evidence to back this up and doubtful there'd be any biologists out there willing to cut some poor kid's finger off to prove it.
If, however, you have something in the way of a peer reviewed medical journal to reference for this, I'd be most interested in reading it.

There is a TED video i saw on this a while ago (maybe 2 -3 years ago), which I can't find at the moment.

They have researched and practice this with success using some cells from a pig (sorry i can't remember the details) they also showed pictures of parts of hands and feet that have regrown. The speaker also went on talking about how a human fetus has the cell and can re grow limbs if lost in the fetal stages of birth.

Originally posted by SilentShadow

Originally posted by indigothefish
young children can fully regrow a finger if it is not cut off past the first knuckle, i beleive this ability is dumbed down after aging

Really? I have never heard of this. Any source for us to read?

link here!

After all, according to regeneration researcher Dr. Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh, children up to the age of two have been known to regrow fingertips with no outside help.

reply to post by indigothefish


Party Pooper Alert:

www.abc.net.au...


The original post is fascinating... but my guess is that we will discover a drawback to attempts at altering the gene - and might there be more than one gene involved in the process for a human?


dunno. would be very cool, but these kinds of proclamations remind me of so many pending cancer cures that fizzle out...