| Title | Scientist Advances Prospect of Regeneration in Humans | |
| Date | Saturday November 20 2021, @07:42AM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the dept. | ||
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)
| Links |
printed from SoylentNews, Scientist Advances Prospect of Regeneration in Humans on 2024-04-25 10:27:51