[tony6789 (OP)]

Does any 1 really know how to harness theregenerating powers of starfish?

- Big T

[Hadrian]

I can think of a few things I like to regenerate




What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

[tony6789 (OP)]

lol


- Big T

[neilep]

I don't think it's possible (at the moment) to harness the regenerating powers of starfish, spiders and lizards etc.....if there was...my word, it would be a fundamental breakthrough in medicine.

Cloning seems to be the way that organs may be used for harvesting, and I beleive there has been some success in growing other small body parts (ears) that then need to attached, and even then I think it's non functioning. To create a technique that enables the body to grow back it's own organs is just not possible.............yet !

Men are the same as women, just inside out !

[wim]

That's right neilep, maybe stemcells will ever bring us that far. In my opinion they sure have the potential.(multipotent stemcells)

here is a little article about the mouse with the human ear
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm]

grtz

[Hadrian]

Seriously though the whole idea is kind of weird. I think it would be supper for people who lost limbs etc. But I bet it will be the cosmetic surgery people who make a killing on this if it ever becomes main stream. Remember Zaphod Beeblebrox with the two heads.  



What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

[ukmicky]

About a year ago the UK goverment gave a university 2 million quid to fund study into how salamanders regrow lost limbs with the hope that in the future we will be able to do the same.

Michael

[tony6789 (OP)]

Not "cloning" i mean "regenerating"

NEVER! underestimate youth

[Hadrian]

I am glad you know what you mean because I don’t know what you mean.
 


What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

[JimBob]

It seems that some one has done a little work on this - Please refer to this article:

http://rense.com/general67/mice.htm


The mind is like a parachute. It works best when open.  -- A. Einstein

[Cut Chemist]

There was an episode of the naked scientists on stem cells not to long ago and they had a professor from cambridge who was expaining what they were etc.

They were talking about bone regeneration, and why bones heal when they break, but they can't grow a new bone.
I think they theorized that the two sections of bone "communicate" via an immune response (antigens/antibodies) and form blood clots that connect the bones before the bones grow and actually seal the break.
When bones are severed surgically they grow bone to seal the bone marrow in and then stop growing.  

Stem Cells will probably eventually be the key to bone regeneration or regeneration of any appendage from that matter.

Stem cells are cells that have not differentiated into specified cells.  So a stem cell can become a skin cell, blood cell, liver cell, bone cell....

The trick is determining what causes the differentiation (sp?) or specification of cells.

Right now stem cell therapy can help heal an injured liver or lung.  This consists of injecting stem cells into the damaged organ, but right now they theorize that the stem cells only help the existing cells to regrenerate themselves.  The stem cells do not differentiate into new cells.  

Theoretically, we could program stem cells to grow another leg or arm, but that technology is a long way off because stem cell research is such a contriversial subject.  

FYI:
Stem cells come from human embryos.
Most of the stem cells used for research, however are from unused embryos at invitro-fertilization clinics.  They grow millions in a test tube and then only insert one into the female.  They would be thrown out anyways, but instead most couples donate their extra stem cells to scientific research.  I don't see why the subject is so contriversial.