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posted by martyb on Thursday November 08 2018, @11:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the unlimited-frogs-legs-for-dinner dept.

Scientists Got Adult Frogs to Regrow Limbs. It's a Step Toward Human 'Regeneration'

Millions of people live with amputated limbs that are gone forever. But that might not be the case in the future. For the first time, scientists have shown that adult frogs can regrow amputated legs. They say the approach can work in humans, too. "There is no reason that human bodies can't regenerate," said Tufts University biologist Michael Levin, who led the new research. "This is the first proof-of-principle of a roadmap for regenerative therapy in human medicine, well beyond limbs," he added. "Many problems — from birth defects to traumatic injury, aging and even cancer — could be solved if we understood how to induce organs to regrow in place."

Ultimately, that's what Levin and his research team at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, want to figure out: how cells cooperate to build a complex three-dimensional organ and "stop exactly when it's done." But first, the scientists needed to try to reproduce organ growth in animals that don't regenerate. Adult African clawed frogs, a common laboratory animal known in scientific circles Xenopus laevis, fit the bill. The amphibians are not normally regenerative but have some tissue renewal capacity, just like humans. "We were hoping to show that adult Xenopus frogs are capable of limb regeneration, and to find a trigger that allows it to happen," Levin said.

The trigger the team found is progesterone, the sex hormone involved in the female menstrual cycle, pregnancy and breastfeeding. The scientists applied the compound to frogs' amputated back legs with a wearable bioreactor device for 24 hours. Then they watched as the limb regenerated.

See also: These Flatworms Can Regrow A Body From A Fragment. How Do They Do It And Could We?

Brief Local Application of Progesterone via a Wearable Bioreactor Induces Long-Term Regenerative Response in Adult Xenopus Hindlimb (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.10.010) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday November 09 2018, @11:32PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Friday November 09 2018, @11:32PM (#760136)

    Otherwise we're going to end up with some 1000 pound frogs, and African Clawed frogs don't sound too friendly, if African bees are any indication

    Many years ago I bought a couple of those little African frogs to add to a a fish tank community, just thinking they looked interesting and besides, they were really cheap. They turned out to be frighteningly gluttonous, essentially eating whatever and whenever food was in front of them. I don't believe they could see too well, but they would snap instantly at anything that passed close enough for them sense its presence. All the small fish in the tank disappeared within a week. When we fed the fish live brine shrimp, the frogs would sit at the bottom of the tank and use their front paws to shovel the shrimp continuously into their mouths. Fortunately they did not live all that long.
    If we somehow genetically engineered them into 1000 pound behemoths, about the size of really big alligators or crocodiles, we would have the makings of a horror movie worthy of the name. I can imagine one popping up at a swimming beach and gobbling people right and left, rather than just grabbing one and disappearing...

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