Scientists learn how to grow limbs
10:47, 31 January
photo pixabay
Scientists have given hope to those who have lost limbs by making a breakthrough in regenerative medicine. According to Science Advances, researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Tufts University have managed to grow frog legs.
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Many creatures have the ability to completely regenerate some limbs, including salamanders, starfish, crabs, and lizards. Flatworms can even be cut into pieces, and each of them will live. But the loss of an arm or leg cannot be fixed by the natural process of regeneration in humans or mammals.
Researchers at Tufts, using bioreactors with a regenerative cocktail, managed to re-grow frog legs, having created a regenerative cocktail. The wound, where the legs should have been situated, was closed with a silicone cap, which was called BioDome. It contained a silk protein gel filled with a cocktail of five drugs.
Each drug performed different tasks, including reducing inflammation, inhibiting collagen production, and stimulating the growth of nerve fibers, blood vessels and muscles.
According to the researchers, there was rapid tissue growth in the treated frogs. The new limbs had an expanded bone structure with a richer set of tissues and several "fingers".
The regrown limb moved and responded to stimuli such as the touch of a stiff fiber. The frogs could use it to swim while moving as in a normal situation.
