Nature Communications<\/a>, Muneoka and his colleagues detail a newly developed two-step treatment that led to the regeneration of bone, joint structures, and ligaments.<\/p>\nWhile the results were imperfect, the team believes this approach could be used more immediately to reduce scarring and improve tissues repair after amputations.<\/p>\n
Redirecting the body\u2019s natural response<\/p>\n
In mammals, injuries typically trigger fibrosis, a process in which fibroblast cells rapidly close the wound and form scar tissue. This response prioritizes survival by sealing the injury quickly, but also limits the body\u2019s ability to rebuild missing structures.<\/p>\n
In regenerative species, like salamanders that can regrow lost limbs, those same types of cells organize into a blastema, a temporary structure that enables tissue regrowth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as if these cells can move in two different directions,\u201d Muneoka says. \u201cThey could either make a scar or make a blastema. Our research focused on redirecting the behavior of fibroblasts already present at the injury site.\u201d<\/p>\n
To test whether mammalian healing could be shifted toward regeneration, researchers developed a sequential treatment using two well-studied growth factors.<\/p>\n
The first step involved applying fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) after a wound had already closed. This timing allowed the body to complete its typical healing response, and then the team \u201cchanged what happens next,\u201d Muneoka says.<\/p>\n
FGF2 stimulated the formation of a blastema-like structure\u2014something that does not normally occur in mammals following this type of injury; several days later, a second treatment\u2014using bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2)\u2014was applied, triggering those cells to begin forming new structures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a two-step process,\u201d Muneoka says. \u201cYou first shift the cells away from scarring, and then you provide the signals that tell them what to build.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenging assumptions<\/p>\n
A key implication of the study is that regeneration does not depend on adding external stem cells, as many current approaches in regenerative medicine attempt to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to actually get stem cells and put them back in,\u201d Muneoka says. \u201cThey\u2019re already there\u2014you just need to learn how to get them to behave the way you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larry Suva, a VTPP professor who worked on the study, says the findings shift how researchers think about the limits of mammalian healing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cells that we thought to be unprogrammable, in fact are,\u201d Suva says. \u201cThe capacity is not absent\u2014it\u2019s just obscured.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study also showed that cells can be redirected to form structures beyond their original location\u2014a concept known as positional re-specification, which plays a critical role in development.<\/p>\n
This means cells that would normally contribute to one part of the body can be instructed to rebuild a different structure after injury.<\/p>\n
Not perfect<\/p>\n
Although the regenerated structures were not exact replicas of the original anatomy, researchers were able to restore all the expected components removed during amputation, such as the bone, tendon, ligament, and joint.<\/p>\n
The results included both skeletal elements and connective tissues, organized in a way that reflects the natural structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regenerated what you would expect to see at that level of injury,\u201d Muneoka says. \u201cThe structures are there\u2014just not in a perfect form.\u201d<\/p>\n
The findings also revealed that regeneration occurs through multiple biological pathways, indicating that rebuilding tissue is more complex than relying on a single mechanism.<\/p>\n
Potential applications for humans<\/p>\n
While the research is still in early stages, it may have more immediate applications in improving how wounds heal.<\/p>\n
Rather than focusing solely on regrowing entire structures, researchers believe the approach could first be used to reduce scarring and improve tissue repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should start thinking about using these signals during the healing process,\u201d Muneoka says. \u201cEven shifting the response slightly away from scarring could have real benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because BMP2 is already FDA approved for certain medical uses and FGF2 is in multiple clinical trials, the pathway to clinical exploration may be more accessible for entirely new therapies.<\/p>\n
The study represents a shift in how scientists understand regeneration in mammals\u2014not as a lost ability, but as one that remains present but inactive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis changes the way we think about what\u2019s possible,\u201d Suva says. \u201cOnce you show that regeneration can be activated, it opens the door to asking entirely new questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Muneoka, those questions have guided decades of research\u2014and now, finally, have a new foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegenerative failure in mammals can be rescued,\u201d he says. \u201cNow we have a model to begin figuring out how.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Texas A&M University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137,306332],"class_list":{"0":"post-632625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-limb-regeneration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}