Manipulating Cells to Trigger Regeneration

Via EurekAlert!, signs of continued progress in understanding how to give orders to cells: "scientists have found a way to regenerate injured spinal cord and muscle by using small molecule drugs to trigger an influx of sodium ions into injured cells. The approach breaks new ground in the field of biomedicine because it requires no gene therapy; can be administered after an injury has occurred and even after the wound has healed over; and is bioelectric, rather than chemically based. ... Like human beings, who regenerate fingertips only as children, [tadpoles] lose the ability to regenerate their tail with age. Most remarkably, it was shown that [tadpoles] whose tails had been removed could be induced to make a perfect new tail by only an hour of treatment with a specific drug cocktail. The findings have tremendous implications for treating wounds ... The treatment method used is most directly applicable to spinal cord repair and limb loss, which are highly significant medical problems world-wide. It also demonstrates a proof-of-principle that may be applicable to many complex organs and tissues. ... We have significantly extended the effective treatment window, demonstrating that even after scar-like wound covering begins to form, control of physiological signals can still induce regeneration. Artificially causing an influx of sodium for just one hour can overcome a variety of problems, such as the decline in regenerative ability that comes with age and the effect of regeneration-blocking drugs."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/tu-spk092310.php

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