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Regrowing Limbs: Can People Regenerate Body Parts?
sciam ^ | April, 2008 | By Ken Muneoka, Manjong Han and David M. Gardiner

Posted on 03/18/2008 6:47:11 PM PDT by Flavius

Progress on the road to regenerating major body parts, salamander-style, could transform the treatment of amputations and major wounds

* The gold standard for limb regeneration is the salamander, which can grow perfect replacements for lost body parts throughout its lifetime. Understanding how can provide a road map for human limb regeneration. * The early responses of tissues at an amputation site are not that different in salamanders and in humans, but eventually human tissues form a scar, whereas the salamander’s reactivate an embryonic development program to build a new limb. * Learning to control the human wound environment to trigger salamanderlike healing could make it possible to regenerate large body parts.

A salamander’s limbs are smaller and a bit slimier than those of most people, but otherwise they are not that different from their human counterparts. The salamander limb is encased in skin, and inside it is composed of a bony skeleton, muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves and blood vessels. A loose arrangement of cells called fibroblasts holds all these internal tissues together and gives the limb its shape.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciam.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: body; health; medicine; regeneration
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1 posted on 03/18/2008 6:47:12 PM PDT by Flavius
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To: Flavius

I lost a fingernail once, from the cuticle to the tip, and it completely regenerated itself. Does that count as a limb?


2 posted on 03/18/2008 6:48:43 PM PDT by highimpact (Abortion - [n]: human sacrifice at the altar of convenience.)
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To: Flavius

Hasn’t Paul McCartney had a rough enough week already?


3 posted on 03/18/2008 6:49:40 PM PDT by jdm ("You only live once and usually not even then." - Michael O'Donoghue)
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To: Flavius

Paging Heather Mills!


4 posted on 03/18/2008 6:50:55 PM PDT by Revolting cat! ("I am like...Dude......do you really....like want the Sex?")
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To: Flavius
Well, Obama is trying to move the foot that keeps regenerating out of his mouth.
5 posted on 03/18/2008 6:52:10 PM PDT by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Flavius; neverdem

BTTT


6 posted on 03/18/2008 6:53:11 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Flavius

Does it grow any GOP leadership spines?


7 posted on 03/18/2008 6:56:08 PM PDT by tflabo (Truth or tyranny)
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To: highimpact

The same thing happened to me. The doctor told me humans can regenerate fingertips indefinitely so long as the amputation does not extend beyond the tip of the fingerbone. It was fascinating to watch my fingertip regrow layer by layer (including the fingerprint) over the few months it took to regenerate.


8 posted on 03/18/2008 6:56:47 PM PDT by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: Fiddlstix

thanks, bfl


9 posted on 03/18/2008 6:58:05 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: highimpact
this technology could quickly get outa hand
10 posted on 03/18/2008 7:00:23 PM PDT by Selmore (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.)
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To: Flavius

Placeholder ping


11 posted on 03/18/2008 7:02:12 PM PDT by Ignatz (I gave up self-sacrifice for Lent.)
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To: A CA Guy

HA!


12 posted on 03/18/2008 7:03:16 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: Flavius

Ah, interesting news to all of us who read A Wrinkle in Time as children.


13 posted on 03/18/2008 7:04:06 PM PDT by conservative cat
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To: Selmore

If it costs an arm and a leg to regrow an arm, then are you really better off?


14 posted on 03/18/2008 7:04:43 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: highimpact

Good for you! Not everyone’s fingertips will come back. Maybe you should let the nice doctors prod and poke ya a bit. (I wouldn’t, though.)


15 posted on 03/18/2008 7:06:06 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man
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To: All

not sure who this guy is

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/142


16 posted on 03/18/2008 7:07:02 PM PDT by Flavius (war gives peace its security)
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To: tflabo

good one!


17 posted on 03/18/2008 7:10:40 PM PDT by Siberian-psycho (An oppressed class which did not try to possess arms, would deserve to be treated as slaves." Lenin)
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To: jdm
LOL. Freepers are hot tonight!
18 posted on 03/18/2008 7:18:17 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Flavius

More importantly, a very rare phenomenon has been observed over the past several hundred years, of exclusively old men, who unexpectedly shed their teeth and regrew a completely new set.

This does not seem physiologically possible, as people are born with their adult teeth in development underneath their baby teeth. A dentist I mentioned this to postulated that they lived the bulk of their lives without the loss of their baby teeth, but this sounds just as unlikely.

But imagine what could be done for people with bad teeth, if their genetic trigger could be activated so that they would grow a new set of healthy teeth.

Imagine teething at the age of 40!


19 posted on 03/18/2008 7:18:53 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: Flavius
My spider-sense is tingling for some reason.

Curtis Connors was born in Coral Gables, Florida. He was a gifted surgeon who enlisted in the army and was sent off to war. He performed emergency battlefield surgery on wounded GIs, but his right arm was injured in a blast and had to be amputated. After his return to civilian life as a research technologist, he became obsessed with uncovering the secrets of reptilian limb regeneration and studied reptilian biology extensively. From his home in the Florida Everglades, he finally developed an experimental serum taken from reptilian DNA. He successfully regrew the missing limb of a rabbit and then, despite the warnings of his wife Martha, chose to test it on himself. Connors ingested the formula and his missing arm did indeed grow back. The formula had a horrible side effect; Connors was subsequently transformed into a reptilian humanoid monster

20 posted on 03/18/2008 7:19:42 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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