Regeneration Gap

Of all of nature's miracles, few have intrigued scientists more than the phenomenon of regeneration. The lowly starfish can regrow any missing parts and may even produce an entire creature from a single arm; the salamander can regenerate much of its body. Higher animals, however, lack this ability. Mammals cannot replace a missing tail or internal organs. In man, skin and bone regrowth comes closest to the true regenerative process.

Now a New York researcher believes that the power to regenerate may be provided artificially. Dr. Robert Becker, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the State University of New York's Upstate Medical Center and a medical investigator at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Syracuse, has already succeeded in stimulating regeneration in laboratory animals and has begun trying to apply his technique to humans. Becker has started a series of tests aimed at producing bone growth in patients with recalcitrant, or non-healing, fractures. His work could lead to new and faster ways to heal broken bones, and may someday even be used to replace tissue destroyed by disease.

Becker's work in tissue regeneration dates back to 1958, when he and his colleagues began experiments to determine whether electrical stimulation could trigger bone and other tissue growth in animals. Earlier research had already established that the chances of regeneration in a species depend upon the proportion of nerve tissue in the area of regeneration. Becker points out that man, with roughly 70% of his total nerve mass concentrated in his brain, cannot regenerate. Salamanders, with only half the mass of their nerve tissue in their brains and the remainder spread throughout their bodies, can grow new tails, legs and even heart tissue. Becker theorized that he could increase the regenerative powers of higher animals by somehow compensating for the relatively small proportion of nerve tissue in their extremities. He tried to accomplish this by bolstering the electrical activity in the nerve network. After amputating limbs from 39 rats, he planted electrodes in the amputation sites and applied current to stimulate cell changes. All but two of the animals responded with some limb growth; many regenerated amputated forelegs as far as the first joint.

Becker, whose current studies are being funded by both the VA and the National Institutes of Health, stresses that he has no intention of trying to grow such spare parts in humans. But he does believe that the power to regenerate tissue could prove important in other medical applications. Techniques that could grow new tissue on a broken bone might ultimately replace joint cartilage destroyed by arthritis. They might even help patients with hearts damaged by disease to grow new cardiac tissue.

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