[Content Note: Animal testing.]
"One of the key goals in regenerative medicine is harnessing the body's own repair mechanisms and manipulating these in a controlled way to treat disease. This interesting study suggests that organ regeneration in a mammal can be directed by manipulation of a single protein, which is likely to have broad implications for other areas of regenerative biology."—Dr. Rob Buckle, head of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where a team of scientists "has succeeded in regenerating a living organ for the first time. The team rebuilt the thymus—an organ in the body located next to the heart that produces important immune cells" inside very old mice.
Clare Blackburn, Professor of Tissue Stem Cell Biology at the MRC Centre cautions: "Our results suggest that targeting the same pathway in humans may improve thymus function and therefore boost immunity in elderly patients, or those with a suppressed immune system. However, before we test this in humans we need to carry out more work to make sure the process can be tightly controlled."
Still: This is a major breakthrough. Very exciting stuff.
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