X-Message-Number: 26900
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:30:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <oberon@vcn.bc.ca>
Subject: Mice regrow themselves

[Now if a longevity test were to be done with these mice....]

From: "Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com" <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.life-extension

> Scientists create 'miracle mice' that can regenerate organs
> Web posted at: 8/28/2005 2:52:58
> Source ::: The Times
> London: Scientists have created a "miracle mouse" that can regenerate
> amputated limbs or badly damaged organs, making it able to recover
> from injuries that would kill or permanently disable normal animals.
>
> The experimental animal is unique among mammals in its ability to
> regrow its heart, toes, joints and tail.
>
> The researchers have also found that when cells from the test mouse
> are injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to
> regenerate.
>
> The discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given
> the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up a new era
> in medicine.
>
> Details of the research will be presented next week at a scientific
> conference on ageing, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence,
> at Cambridge University. Ellen Heber-Katz, professor of immunology at
> the Wistar Institute, an American biomedical research centre, says
> that the ability of mice at her laboratory to regenerate appears to be
> controlled by about a dozen genes.
>
> She is still researching their exact functions, but it seems almost
> certain that humans have comparable genes. "We have experimented with
> amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart,
> toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow," she said. "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." Heber-Katz made
> her discovery when she noticed that the identification holes that
> scientists punch in the ears of experimental mice healed without any
> signs of scarring.
>
> The self-healing mice, from a strain known as MRL, were then subjected
> to a series of surgical procedures. In one the mice had their toes
> amputated - but the digits grew back, complete with joints.
>
> In another test some of the tail was cut off but also regenerated.
> Then the researchers used a cryoprobe to freeze parts of the animals'
> hearts, only to see these grow back again.

COMMENT:

This is no joke--- the MRL mice are real enough.

http://www.stormingmedia.us/93/9303/A930324.html

Ellen Heber-Katz of the Wistar Institute will be speaking at Aubrey's
DeGray's SENS-2 meeting in Cambridge about the self-regenerating MRL
mice. Apparently (see above abstract) she's sucking, or wants to suck,
at the DoD teat to make self-regenerating soldiers (sigh). I guess
that's the only way this research can get done in today's militarized
Republicanized U.S.

In other words, never mind stem cells--- we have to have Haldeman's
_Forever War_ first:

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/forever.htm

But (silver lining) I suppose the science will eventually trickle-down
and get used in normal medicine. After they get done fighting The War
On Terror. Whenever that is....

SBH

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26900