Regrowing Limbs - How Close Are We?

Longevity-seekers hopes to apply the power of amphibians like the salamander, the axlotl, and the worm to human medicine. Sonia Arrison, author of 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith, believes that tissue engineering will revolutionize the treatment of chronic illnesses: “In the future, if we had the ability to grow a brand new heart or parts of hearts with that person’s very own adult stem cells, then when we know that they have heart disease, we could just replace the heart. All of those [costly] visits to the hospital, all of the drugs, won’t be required.” Better tools will enable us to repair people rather than just sort of patching them up for a little while until they get sicker and sicker, she says.




The trick, of course, is applying this knowledge to human anatomy. Arrison explains, "Since we all evolve from the same place, humans must have a set of genes that can allow for growing back new limbs - it’s just that they’re 'turned off' right now ." If we could figure out how to turn them back on, or to add new genes based on the salamander model, then it could be possible to create new organs from scratch. In fact, one of the biggest spenders in this story is the Pentagon, which has put at least $250 million in to the search to find a way to create new human organs in the lab. 
“They’re funding work in terms of growing all sort of organs - bladders and windpipes and hearts and lungs, livers," says Arrison, "but also in hopes of figuring out how to regrow arms and legs" for soldiers wounded in combat. Thanks to this influx of public money, the field has moved forward much quicker than it would have otherwise. So far, researchers have succeeded growing hearts, livers, breast tissue, and bone in the lab. The brain remains elusive - but Arrison is optimistic: "The brain is much tougher than other organs in the human body, but work is moving along."

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