Scientist advances prospect of regeneration in humans:
Without macrophages, which are part of the immune system, regeneration did not take place. Instead of regenerating a limb, the axolotl formed a scar at the site of the injury, which acted as a barrier to regeneration, just as it would in a mammal such as a mouse or human. In terms of regenerative capability, Godwin had turned the salamander into a mammal. In a follow-up 2017 study, he found the same to be true in heart tissue.
Now, in a study that builds on his earlier research, Godwin has identified the origin of pro-regenerative macrophages in the axolotl as the liver. By providing science with a place to look for pro-regenerative macrophages in humans -- the liver, rather than the bone marrow, which is the source of most human macrophages -- the finding paves the way for regenerative medicine therapies in humans.
Although the prospect of regrowing a human limb may be unrealistic in the short term due to a limb's complexity, regenerative medicine therapies could potentially be employed in the shorter term in the treatment of the many diseases in which scarring plays a pathological role, including heart, lung and kidney disease, as well as in the treatment of scarring itself -- for instance, in the case of burn victims.
"In our earlier research, we found that scar-free healing hinges on a single cell type, the macrophage," Godwin said. "This finding means we have a way in. If axolotls can regenerate by having a single cell type as their guardian, then maybe we can achieve scar-free healing in humans by populating our bodies with an equivalent guardian cell type, which would open up the opportunity for regeneration."
The paper on Godwin's research, entitled "Identification of the Adult Hematopoietic Liver As the Primary Reservoir for the Recruitment of Pro-regenerative Macrophages Required for Salamander Limb Regeneration," was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.
[...] If the regenerative process at the site of an injury can be compared to a party -- an analogy Godwin often uses -- his research has revealed the category of guest who attends and, now, where the guests come from and how and when they get there. The next step will be to nail down their specific identities, or as he puts it, the "flavors" of macrophages required for regeneration, and how they interact with other guests.
That research will revolve around the study of scarring, or fibrosis, which in adult mammals blocks regeneration through its effect on tissue function and integrity.
Although it remains to be seen if achieving scar-free healing in mammals will allow regeneration to proceed -- other processes may also be involved -- Godwin believes that may be the case. Because mammals already possess the machinery for regeneration -- young mice can regenerate, as can human newborns -- mammalian regeneration may simply be a matter of removing the barrier posed by scarring.
Journal Reference:
Debuque, Ryan J., Hart, Andrew J., Johnson, Gabriela H., et al. Identification of the Adult Hematopoietic Liver as the Primary Reservoir for the Recruitment of Pro-regenerative Macrophages Required for Salamander Limb Regeneration, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.750587)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @08:38AM
Not just physical organs, but batshit ideologies. Can anyone believe we are still debating Nazis in 2021?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @09:26AM (1 child)
Half-cocked Men all over the world rejoice to know this tech is there to help them in the fight against penises amputation!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday November 20 2021, @10:47AM
If they combine it with miracle-grow will it grow back bigger and stronger?
I'm at the age where, in the morning, everything is stiff except for what I want to be.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @09:32AM
Actually, had an accident with a Planer years ago. Use proper push sticks, people! Cut halfway through the last bone on the finger, and fractured it clean through. They said, had I been much younger, it might have grown back. As it is, mostly grown back. Was worried at the time that I would no longer be able to play guitar. Still can't play guitar, but not because of the finger. Now, about my tail, . . .
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday November 20 2021, @12:36PM
This article talks about regenerating limbs, but I wonder if it could be used to regenerate organs or other tissues as well. They're making good progress with 3D printing new organs, but it would be better if you could just grow back what you lost.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @12:59PM (7 children)
After all, the FDA needs 55 years to process the paperwork before it can release the FOIA request on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/fda-requests-55-years-to-complete-foia-request-pfizer-s-covid-19-vaccine [fiercepharma.com]
If this whole thing isn't a joke by now ... (but I suppose now that some potentially negative things about the vaccines are coming out, any talk about vaccines are now off topic and won't be posted. They weren't off topic earlier on but now that the democrats have eventually hijacked what gets posted if submitted on the Subs Queue I won't even bother submitting something like this there anymore).
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by acid andy on Saturday November 20 2021, @01:25PM
That's OK. Chicks dig scars.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by mcgrew on Saturday November 20 2021, @06:14PM (5 children)
Snopes [snopes.com] covered your propaganda this morning,
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @08:18PM
Here is the link
https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/11/19/fda-2076-vaccine-data/ [snopes.com]
it basically says the same thing I already said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @08:22PM (3 children)
The FDA argues that it can only reasonably be expected to process 500 pages a month and that there are over 300K pages to process so it should take 55 years or so. Well, shouldn't all this information already have been processed before the vaccine was even approved? If they really need all that time to process the data then clearly they didn't have enough time to process it before approving the vaccine. You would think that approving a vaccine that's going to be put in our bodies would undergo a much more onerous process than approving the documents associated with the vaccine for public release.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 21 2021, @05:41AM (2 children)
Yes, they did have to process, read, and understand it with different experts in different fields on the look out for different issues. What they didn't have to do is have a team of 10 people redact information before being able to do anything else with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 21 2021, @01:20PM (1 child)
If they have nothing to hide ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 24 2021, @06:14AM
They don't. The companies involved and the people who volunteered on the other hand ...
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday November 20 2021, @02:50PM (1 child)
So we are (or can become) the Lizard people? Take that little grey aliens! Lizard power!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday November 21 2021, @03:40PM
Lizard people? With regeneration ability, we could become time lords!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.