Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

leoyoung1 OP t1_jaaub1b wrote

Thank you SO much for such an in depth answer to the challenges. How close are we to being able to do this? Is this something that is actually being researched, or better yet, developed?

4

Kindred87 t1_jaaxok5 wrote

If you check the link, limb regeneration was achieved in frogs (that don't naturally regenerate) over a year ago. There're other experiments that have produced ectopic organs in tadpoles like extra eyes, hearts, and brains, though it's not as hard to accomplish in an organism that's already undergoing morphogenesis. Limbs are a good research target for morphogenesis in non-regenerative adults because they're isolated anatomically, are external, and feature a wide range of tissues including nerves.

There are studies underway on mice though growing limbs takes a while so it will take another year or three before we see the results of that.

However, the neat thing about this approach is how lateral it is with other anatomical structures. Because it's a top down approach that offloads the work to your cells, the same mechanisms for growing a limb can be used to grow an eye, liver, cartilage, or whatever. Again, this has been proven in tadpoles already. Once limbs are figured out other anatomical structures, like teeth, will quickly follow.

That all said, full in vivo regeneration is probably still another decade or two out from being available as an outpatient service. You'll probably have synthetic teeth produced via 3D printing, stem cell production, or cellular scaffolding before you're regrowing your teeth yourself.

11

leoyoung1 OP t1_jab1scw wrote

The paper is fascinating. And just a little intimidating.

3