X-Message-Number: 16215 From: "Jan Coetzee" <> Subject: Gene find will help us to regrow limbs and organs Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 18:37:50 -0400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01C0D65B.A7C75380 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Gene find will help us to regrow limbs Humans could one day grow limbs lost in accidents or regenerate organs destroyed by illness The prospect has been raised by geneticists who have revealed the biological secret of creatures that can replace limbs that have been severed in fights or attacks by predators. This ability - possessed by creatures such as salamanders, which can regenerate legs, and various species of lizards, which can regrow tails - has baffled scientists for centuries. But now researchers have discovered the process is controlled by a genetic signal switched on in cells of amphibians but turned off in mammals. "The presence of this activated gene in amphibians allows them to regrow legs," says Professor Juan Belmonte, of the gene expression laboratory at the Salk Institute in California. "More importantly, its absence explains why higher vertebrate creatures like ourselves cannot regenerate lost limbs. That awareness in turn raises the prospect that we could one day intervene and switch on this gene. In other words, we could regrow lost organs." The ability to reverse amputation operations would have a huge medical bonus. However, scientists believe the technique is likely to be of even greater benefit when used to regenerate organs - such as the heart or the liver - that have been destroyed by disease. ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01C0D65B.A7C75380 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16215