Tuesday, October 04, 2005

'Miracle mouse' can grow back lost limbs - Health news - Times Online

Original date of this post: August 28, 2005

A fascinating development (something I'm sure you'll find is quite common on this blog). Scientists have created a self-healing mouse. The things they did to this mouse! And yet, it regenerated limbs, organs, it healed holes, perforated ears and who knows what else. It came through oh kay.

“We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow,” she said.

'She' being the lead scientist. The only organ that is unaffected by this pathologically self-healing gene seems to be the brain. Everything else regenerates. What's more is that when they injected cells from this mouse strain (and obviously strained mouse) into other, normal, mice, the self-healing ability was acquired.

The discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up a new era in medicine.

No comments: