As Good As New

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Some animals have an amazing capacity to regenerate lost body parts.  Worms, fish and amphibians can regrow internal organs and even entire limbs.

Humans can only regenerate a few tissues, the blood, the outer skin and to some extent the liver.  Our problem is that most of our cells become irreversibly specialized early in the development of the fetus.  Injured amphibians don’t scar as we do, but instead revert cells to a "stem cell" state, generating a lost limb like an embryo does.

Now researchers are exploring ways of emulating amphibian limb regeneration in humans.  Although regrowing amputated arms is still in the realm of science fiction, regeneration of portions of damaged organs, like the kidney and the heart, is a real possibility.

In addition to exploring ways of boosting the bodies natural regeneration capacity, researchers are also exploring "stem cell" therapy.  The harvesting of undifferentiated stem cells is a huge ethical problem, since many come from embryos.  Yet, there is the possibility of harvesting cells from the patients themselves, manipulating them, and then transplanting them into the damaged organ.

The most advanced work in this area is on Parkinson’s Disease.

So next time you injure yourself, maybe someday they’ll be able to fix you up as good as new!