I set this category up on my blog with the intention of criticising everything wrong with modern times: knife crime, ready meals, starbucks coffee, dizzee rascall, x factor, etc etc. But today is a historic day. I have just finished watching BBC’s ‘fix me’ a horizons show about stem cell research. Wait! Before you fall asleep with boredom… they showed how scientists have found ways to grow hearts, fix spinal chord injuries and enable people to grow new limbs. Yes… grow new limbs! Bloody brilliant.
- The Axolotl Mexican Salamandar has shown that growing new limbs is possible for humans
The show followed the story of three people that have ailments that are currently incurable. The first was a girl that had suffered a spinal chord injury in a car crash and she was, as a result, wheelchair bound. She went to meet doctors and scientists in America who were working toward curing something that currently has no cure. Science has found a way of isolating regenerative cells and sending them to the areas that need them. This will hold the key to curing spinal chord injuries.
The show also followed a guy that had lost his leg after a rugby challenge and a bad operation. He met up with the military research centre in the US where they had been looking into ways of enabling people to regrow limbs. Yes RE GROW LOST LIMBS! They had taken the Mexican salamander as their inspiration. When the little amphibian loses a limb it is able to grow a new one. Closer scientific research made scientists believe that humans could do the same. The scientists found that when humans lose a limb their body reacts by creating scar tissue and covering the wound. The salamander reacts differently and sends regenerative cells to the wound instead. Scientists have isolated the regenerative cells in humans and are able to send these to a wound and the cells will in turn create a new limb. Yes seriously. They have tried it on a soldier that lost a finger and he has seen growth of a new digit!
