Axolotl Discovery Brings Us Closer Than Ever To Regrowing Human Limbs (sciencealert.com) 40
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: A team of biologists from Northeastern University and the University of Kentucky has found one of the key molecules involved in axolotl regeneration. It's a crucial component in ensuring the body grows back the right parts in the right spot: for instance, growing a hand, from the wrist. "The cells can interpret this cue to say, 'I'm at the elbow, and then I'm going to grow back the hand' or 'I'm at the shoulder... so I'm going to then enable those cells to grow back the entire limb'," biologist James Monaghan explains.
That molecule, retinoic acid, is arranged through the axolotl body in a gradient, signaling to regenerative cells how far down the limb has been severed. Closer to the shoulder, axolotls have higher levels of retinoic acid, and lower levels of the enzyme that breaks it down. This ratio changes the further the limb extends from the body. The team found this balance between retinoic acid and the enzyme that breaks it down plays a crucial role in 'programming' the cluster of regenerative cells that form at an injury site. When they added surplus retinoic acid to the hand of an axolotl in the process of regenerating, it grew an entire arm instead.
In theory, the human body has the right molecules and cells to do this too, but our cells respond to the signals very differently, instead forming collagen-based scars at injury sites. Next, Monaghan is keen to find out what's going on inside cells -- the axolotl's, and our own -- when those retinoic acid signals are received. The research is published in Nature Communications.
That molecule, retinoic acid, is arranged through the axolotl body in a gradient, signaling to regenerative cells how far down the limb has been severed. Closer to the shoulder, axolotls have higher levels of retinoic acid, and lower levels of the enzyme that breaks it down. This ratio changes the further the limb extends from the body. The team found this balance between retinoic acid and the enzyme that breaks it down plays a crucial role in 'programming' the cluster of regenerative cells that form at an injury site. When they added surplus retinoic acid to the hand of an axolotl in the process of regenerating, it grew an entire arm instead.
In theory, the human body has the right molecules and cells to do this too, but our cells respond to the signals very differently, instead forming collagen-based scars at injury sites. Next, Monaghan is keen to find out what's going on inside cells -- the axolotl's, and our own -- when those retinoic acid signals are received. The research is published in Nature Communications.
Discovery Brings Us Closer Than Ever (Score:1)
By analogy, I'm closer than ever to being a billionaire astronaut olympic sprinter.
Re: Discovery Brings Us Closer Than Ever (Score:2)
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Or a Human/Axolotl hybrid with tiny flippers instead of hands, as the case may be!
;-)
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We already had flipper babies due to Thalidomide.
As a side note, a few months ago I learned that we were still using Thalidomide. We're just using it for different things and in different situations. They no longer peddle it to pregnant women, so we don't get more of those flipper babies.
Re: Discovery Brings Us Closer Than Ever (Score:1)
Started reading a copy of Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World that my uncle gave me a while back.
First chapter calls out thalidomide as a nucleation site for public mistrust of the scientific enterprise (book was written in 1995 back when memories of it were fresher).
Sagan distinctly falls onto the "science cheerleader" camp in today's culture wars, but it's telling that even the patron saint of capital-S Skepticism opens his final book with an exhortation to humility among scientists and presumably also the s
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I'm a (retired) mathematician. More specifically, my degree is in Applied Mathematics.
I mention that so that this makes sense: I'm a firm believer in the scientific method. I am a true 'science cheerleader'.
But, I know that the science isn't always correct. Quite often, it's just the best working model we have. We don't always, one might say we seldom do, have a complete understanding. If we did have a complete understanding, we'd stop doing science. There would be no need to continue. We have working model
Re: Discovery Brings Us Closer Than Ever (Score:1)
I mention that so that this makes sense: I'm a firm believer in the scientific method. I am a true 'science cheerleader'.
I'm a research engineer in the nominal prime of my career with all kinds of impressive-looking letters after my name. I, too, am a firm believer in systematic, hard-nosed, and uncompromising interrogation of Nature.
I mention this because I would prefer not to be misconstrued as yet another loudmouth in the peanut gallery when I say that the scientific enterprise, both the public-facing and the inward-facing parts, are a badly broken remnant of a once-great human endeavor. And political extremists of both co
You've made another thoughtless comment. (Score:2)
By analogy, I'm closer than ever to being a billionaire astronaut olympic sprinter.
* Given your age, you are further than ever from being Olympic sprinter.
* Given your declining heath, you are further than ever from being an astronaut.
* People who become billionaires usually do so rapidly near the start of their careers. You are further than ever from the start of your career.
So, no, you are further than ever from being a billionaire, an astronaut, or an Olympic sprinter.
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People who become billionaires usually do so rapidly near the start of their careers by inheriting a billionaire's fortune. - there, fixed it for you.
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My level of pessimism about things like regrowing limbs has declined a lot in recent years. I mean, there's literally a treatment to regrow whole teeth in human clinical trials right now in Japan, after having past clinical trials with mice and ferrets.
In the past, "medicine" was primarily small molecules, or at best preexisting proteins. But we've entered an era where we can create arbitrary proteins to target other proteins, or to control gene expression, or all sorts of other things; the level of comple
Theres hope (Score:3)
Re:Theres hope (Score:5, Funny)
Hey friend, don't be so hard on yourself. You have everything you need right now to become a villain from Spider-Man. All you really need is the desire to steal advanced technology and then abuse that technology to commit further acts of larceny. I believe in you.
that's backwards (Score:2)
No, these are axolotl.
The Spiderman villain becomes *you*, and you end up in a tank.
Doesn't anyone read their Cortazar anymore?
[shakes head]
Need a THIRD arm (Score:2)
Oh man... (Score:3)
...a third arm would really help out with my ski-boxing!
Re: Oh man... (Score:2)
Sadly, I don't think a third arm would help my harpsichord playing. I already can't handle the pedalboard on the organ with 2 legs, also. The 3rd leg would help for other activities, though.
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I'm a classical guitarist, at least by training. I've spent time in the past wondering what I could do with a third arm (and hand, of course). I could make some interesting music with that. If I had seven fingers (including the thumb), I'd be able to fashion all sorts of chord shapes - though it might help to have a wider fretboard. If I had four arms, two on each side, it could be even more interesting.
As I was not born with those, I suspect it'd take me quite a while to learn how to use the extra appendag
Re: Need a THIRD leg (Score:2)
Not sure about the third arm, but I think the fashion industry would have a field day with a third leg !
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no money in that, but the day they sell this as potential form to dick enlargement, watch out nvidia, you will be the second largest company in the world in no time.
One big problem (Score:2)
Our cell's response to this molecule is to build scar tissue, not regrow a limb.
We would have to try and reprogram our cells to do something entirely different than they do - regrow a limb - which is the hard part, I think.
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>We evolved instead to just cover the problem up ASAP with some
>protective stuff and get back to grubbing around to keep ourselves alive.
Translation: grandpa became useless, and so we ate him. :_)
hawk
Why axolotls? (Score:2)
They aren't the only animals capable of limb regeneration.
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They are the best at it. What animal are you thinking of? A fish?
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They are the best at it. What animal are you thinking of? A fish?
I remember writing a version of that program when I was a kid!
How is a Time Lord different from a Starfish?
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Various lizards, like iguanas.
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Oh, and newts.
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Newts can compete with Axolotl but according to AI they are harder to raise in the lab, less studied (so scienceing it is harder because there are more unknowns), and also hard to genetically modify.
Newts (e.g., Red-spotted newt – Notophthalmus viridescens)
Regeneration capacity: Very high, rivaling or in some cases exceeding axolotls.
Can regenerate:
Limbs
Tail
Eye lens
Heart tissue
Spinal cord
Differences with axolotl:
Newts go through metamorphosis and still retain regenerative ability, which axolotls don't
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I agree though, maybe more people should look at newts too (in addition to axolotl).
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Seems like amphibians have overall better regeneration capabilities than lizards.
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They aren't the only animals capable of limb regeneration.
Correct. There are also Time Lords and Starfish.
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Because Mark Zuckerberg was too busy to become a test subject for the experiment.
ScienceAlert article is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
They didn't discover that retinoic acid is a key molecule. I worked in a lab on regeneration decades ago .. and it was common knowledge that retinoic acid is a key player. The questions were surrounding how the heck it does its thing and why. This new research answers some of that.
No Axotlotls were harmed in this research.. (Score:2)