http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16417002%5E30417,00.html Coooooooool. Think of the possibilities: lost your arm in a car accident? No problem, one injection and 6 months later and you have a new one.
Awesome stuff I would imagine this would be incredibly useful in the army for people who have limbs blown off or something.
Hmmm... interesting concept. One thing confuses me though: it states that the brain does not regenerate, but then later on it says that the optic nerve does. Despite its name, the optic nerve (and eye) is technically a part of the brain. If the CNS can regenerate, it's a cure for spinal chord paralysis. Still, if this is true, we're talking major medical breakthrough. A cure not just for amputated limbs, but also for blindness, deafness, paralysis...
Yup. The optic nerve is just a sensory nerve like any other body nerve, whereas the brain is neurone nerve and they require specific programming rather than are just used as information transmission. Of course it doesnt cure people who are genetically disordered i spose.
Not quite. The optic nerve is one of the twelve cranial nerves, but despite its name technically it is a "tract" and part of the central nervous system, rather than a "nerve" which is a part of the peripheral nerves. The eyes are strictly speaking mutated brain parts... This is why (under natural conditions) optic nerves do not regenerate, whereas peripheral nerves do.
Reminds me of when Harry Potter had to regrow his arms after the Lockhart incident on the Quidditch pitch! Cool, but one thing though, how does the brain know what cell goes where? We could end up having 23 extra fingers all in the wrong places!
The brain doesn't know. It doesn't have a role in it. Cellular regeneration is governed at a complex local, chemical marker level that we don't really understand much yet. Neurological re-wiring/configuration calibrates itself at a spinal and cortical level while the nerves are being regenerated.
