Tuesday, March 18, 2008

grow something!



Genetic signals that block the regrowth of limbs and organs have been found.

With Dr Viravuth Yin and colleagues he studied a common aquarium pet, the zebrafish, which is capable of regenerating its spinal cord, retina, heart and fins in two weeks.

They report in the journal Genes & Development that a reduction in genetic signals based on small scraps of the material RNA - "microRNAs" - is a key step in tissue regeneration.

In humans, microRNAs play important roles in cell growth and death, among other things. There are hundreds of kinds of microRNAs, and scientists are constantly discovering new roles they play.

Dr Poss and many other cell biologists believe that people may have the same tissue regeneration capability as zebrafish, salamanders and newts, but that it is locked away somewhere in our genetic makeup, silenced in the course of evolution. "The key is finding a way to turn on this regenerative ability in humans," Dr Poss says.


source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/03/14/scilimb114.xml

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