{"id":452108,"date":"2026-05-16T15:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:25:10","slug":"scientists-say-theyve-invented-a-serum-that-activates-a-dormant-ability-to-regrow-lost-limbs-in-mammals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452108\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Say They\u2019ve Invented a Serum That Activates a Dormant Ability to Regrow Lost Limbs in Mammals"},"content":{"rendered":"

For millennia \u2014 since at least the time of Aristotle<\/a> \u2014 medical thinkers have pondered why certain animals like salamanders are able to regrow entire lost limbs, while mammals like us humans have to make due without any appendages we\u2019ve lost.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences say they may have cracked the code. In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications<\/a>, they detail a process they say causes bones, joints, and ligaments to regenerate in mammals which otherwise would not be able to regrow tissue.<\/p>\n

Basically, the researchers used a two-step process that mimics the way regenerative animals such as salamanders regrow lost tissue after amputation. They pull it off via a process known as epimorphic regeneration, in which lost limbs are first covered by a layer of skin cells. Local cells then rearrange themselves into a blastema, a temporary structure that forms the base-layer for the rest of the limb.<\/p>\n

By controlling this limb-loss process with a specially-engineered serum that sends signals to cells, researchers found they can encourage the growth of a blastema in mammals: lab mice, in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really a two-step process,\u201d Ken Muneoka, one of the authors of the study, said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cYou first shift the cells away from scarring, and then you provide the signals that tell them what to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike typical regenerative approaches which use external stem cells, this newly-uncovered process uses the cells that are locally available. As Muneoka put it: \u201cthey\u2019re already there \u2014 you just need to learn how to get them to behave the way you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the process isn\u2019t perfect, scientists hope it can help reduce scarring and encourage tissue regeneration after traumatic injuries. Either way, study co-author Larry Suva said the findings change our understanding of mammalian healing, which has particularly fascinating implications for humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cells that we thought to be unprogrammable, in fact are,\u201d Suva said. \u201cThe capacity is not absent \u2014 it\u2019s just obscured.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on limbs: Body Horror Robot Turns Human Into Centaur<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For millennia \u2014 since at least the time of Aristotle \u2014 medical thinkers have pondered why certain animals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,17438,56716,82,12952,196239],"class_list":["post-452108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nature-communications","tag-regeneration","tag-science","tag-stem-cells","tag-texas-am-college-of-veterinary-medicine-and-biomedical-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}