People have long been trying to understand how amphibians, for example, newts and salamanders, regenerate severed tails, limbs, and jaws. But they also have a damaged heart, eyes, and spinal cord
Lee Spivak, 69, from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, works in a store that sells all kinds of airplane modeling supplies. And then one day, pointing his finger at a model airplane, Lee said: "We need to get rid of this thing!" And, apparently, he was right, because at that very moment the propeller bounced off the fuselage and completely cut off a piece of his finger! As he now says, about one and a half centimeters. They didn't sew this piece back - they didn't even find it in the confusion. The doctors just threw up their hands - there's nothing you can do about it! However, today that very finger of Mr. Spivak's looks quite normal - it has grown back to its former length by itself, its sensitivity has fully recovered, nerves, blood vessels, bone, nail - everything is in place!
But how is this possible? After all, a person is not a lizard capable of regrowing a lost tail!
It turns out that Alan, the victim's brother, who works at the University of Pittsburgh on regeneration problems, sent him some kind of miraculous powder and told him to sprinkle it on the wound. After the second treatment of the wound, Li noticed that the finger began to grow back! Every day - a little more. And after about four weeks, he recovered in its former form!
This incident became a sensation. And now everyone knows the name of Dr. Stephen Badilak from that very University of Pittsburgh, because he is in charge of the work on tissue and organ regeneration. new And he believes that the day will come when the strategy developed here will allow to restore even lost bone and all functional tissues around it - blood vessels, nerves, muscles. How? With the help of the same "magic powder" that Dr. Badilak calls the extracellular matrix.
Get yourself a pig
The extracellular matrix (from the English extracellular matrix) in molecular biology is called the structures that ensure the interaction of cells with each other. This is a kind of intercellular scaffold with a set of proteins and growth factors characteristic of each type of tissue. "Magic powder" Dr. Badilak invented and makes himself. Pig bladder is used as the main component. If the technique can be improved, one day it will be possible to restore severely burned skin or even grow lost organs.
“The brain sends all kinds of signals to our organs,” explains Dr. Badilak. - Some order the damaged tissue to grow together, forming a scar, while others order to restore the lost tissue. The task of the matrix is to eliminate the stimuli for scar formation and to “use” only those signals that contribute to reconstruction.
How to add volume?
But what are these mysterious signals that Dr. Badilak is talking about? There are no explanations, because he does not yet have any publications on this topic in scientific journals. But there are publications by the Russian researcher Pyotr Petrovich Gariaev, which talk about wave genetics, about the holographic framework on which the body is built. Obviously, it was on it that the lost fragment of the finger was regenerated. After all, Gariaev's team, with the help of the device invented by them, has long ago (and at a distance!) Regenerated even such a complex organ as the pancreas. The regeneration of lost tissues and organs is like a beautiful dream. They studied lizards, tried to work with leeches, conjured this and that. Many probably know the story of a Russian boy from the provinces, whose severed finger has grown again! Maybe,certain cells appeared on the wound surface, each of which was transformed into the tissue that was needed in a given place, and the finger regenerated along some invisible frame. And nobody poured any miraculous powder there! Now, behold, the story of an American who re-grown a finger has again excited the scientific world. It turns out that we do not know all the secret forces of our body, but the extracellular matrix is a "scaffold" on which "floors" of new cells grow.that we do not know all the secret forces of our organism, and the extracellular matrix is the "scaffolding" on which "floors" of new cells grow.that we do not know all the secret forces of our organism, and the extracellular matrix is the "scaffolding" on which "floors" of new cells grow.
As Professor Stephen Minger, an expert in stem cells and regenerative medicine at King's College London, says, “Right now, people are trying to figure out how to make heart, brain and liver cells,” and something is already working out!
Even the heart has grown
This was reported on January 14, 2008. The heart was raised in a laboratory, and it beats! The framework for it was the extracellular matrix of the animal's heart, purified from its own cells and "seeded" with a mixture of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells. Regenerative medicine is currently following this path: tissues or organs are grown on the basis of the patient's own cells. It is convenient - the problem of tissue incompatibility disappears. Earlier, however, separate "parts" were grown in this way - a heart valve, for example, or a phalanx of a finger. Or the liver - on an artificial frame made of biopolymers. But the whole heart? No, this is the first time. Until recently, this was considered impossible due to the extremely complex three-dimensional structure of this organ.
Employees of the University of Minnesota solved this problem, however, so far only in rats and pigs: they treated several hearts with a detergent, the purified extracellular matrix was populated with new cells of cardiac tissue. On the eighth day, the heart began to contract. It is true, they were weak hearts, but the trouble is the beginning! In the future, artificial three-dimensional organs grown in the laboratory may solve the problem of donor deficiency in transplantology. Theoretically, it will be possible to use the patient's own stem cells (for example, taken from the placenta at the birth of a given person) to create biocompatible organs. This is the same as if we return the organism to the embryonic period, when the specialization of cells is just beginning.
Tests? It's time
American scientists have seized on the idea of using the extracellular matrix and intend to begin clinical trials in Buenos Aires on a woman suffering from esophageal cancer. The procedure adopted in such cases is often fatal. Surgeons remove the malignant tumor along with part of the esophagus and pull the inner wall of the stomach upward - so as to replenish the lost part of the esophagus. Now they will put the extracellular matrix there.
So, maybe the severed limbs will be able to grow again? Dr. Badilak is cautious in his predictions, but believes that “within ten years, we will have strategies to re-grow bones and promote the growth of functional tissue around those bones.
And this is a major step towards the possible restoration of the entire limb."
Such forecasts interested the American military - after all, it is necessary to help the wounded soldiers. For example, war veteran Robert Henlein: he almost died in an explosion in Iraq, but 35% of his body was burned - his head and upper torso. The skin on the head is burned to the bone, the face is a crimson mess. He has already undergone 25 operations. And there are still at least 30.
Instructions for growing new organs
People have long been trying to understand how amphibians, for example, newts and salamanders, regenerate severed tails, limbs, and jaws. But they also have a damaged heart, eyes, and spinal cord. Something became clear when we compared the regeneration in mature individuals and embryos. It turns out that part of the tissue that should become the skin can be cut out from the embryo and placed in the brain area. And this tissue will become part of the brain! In adults, such a miracle will not happen - cell specialization has already ended. But that is if you are a human, not a salamander. But the genes necessary for tissue regeneration are both in them and in ours. But our immune system does not allow these genes to work. Apparently, in the course of evolution, the two systems - the immune and the regenerative - became incompatible with each other, and the body had to choose. Triton chose regenerative, and man - immune. It protects us from infections, but at the same time blocks "self-repair". But the ancient "instruction" for growing new organs is stored somewhere there! We just need to make it "turn on" when required. The main thing is to give a signal for the cells to grow, and the body itself knows how much tissue is needed and where.
But how long does it take for a person to grow a new leg to its normal size? London scholar Jeremy Brox believes he is at least 18 years old. Optimists believe in a matter of weeks or months.
As with any emerging technology, there are many unknowns in this one. Therefore, Russian scientists are prudent and careful: there are already cases when cellular regeneration led to the growth of malignant tissues. Enthusiasts, however, believe that the danger is exaggerated: the body is smart! You just need to "agree" with him …
V. Hoffman "Interesting newspaper. Incredible "№21 2008