While many fish and amphibians have the ability to regenerate severed limbs and damaged organs, us warm-blooded mammals have never quite managed to swing such a feat … until now. Scientists at the Wistar Institute, an American biomedical research center, have created a mouse with unnatural abilities:
“We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow. It is quite remarkable. The only organ that did not grow back was the brain.
When we injected foetal liver cells taken from those animals into ordinary mice, they too gained the power of regeneration. We found this persisted even six months after the injection.”
(Ellen Hever-Katz, Wistar Institute)
What’s more, the trait seems to be controlled by only about a dozen genes — which suggests (apparently) that humans could eventually be given this ability as well. Optimistic Skepticism: activated.
LINK [Times Online article]
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