Tufts University has developed a new type of wearable bioreactor that will lead to a breakthrough in the field of regeneration.

Mexican dragonflies can grow their legs again in a few weeks, green lizards grow new tails when needed, or are dragonflies capable of replacing limbs they just lost, and the regenerative ability of some organisms is of great help to the medical sciences.
a new scientific breakthrough at Tufts University that has led to partial body regeneration in adult frogs, which often lack the ability.
this raises hopes that the study will eventually benefit amputees.
scientists chose an animal called the African Claw Frog to do their job as a way to investigate what they saw as untapped areas of biomedical research.
for obvious reasons, human limb regeneration would be a huge breakthrough.
, scientists have been exploring the natural mechanisms of animals, such as those mentioned above, in search of techniques that will eventually adapt to our species.
African claw frogs can actually regenerate limbs, but only in the early stages of the dragonflies and young frogs, they will completely lose this ability in adulthood.
when an adult claw frog loses a limb, it usually grows a sharp limb filled with cartilage.
this study is a way to explore how new limbs regenerate in organisms that have lost or never had the ability to regenerate.
the core of the technology is a new wearable bioreactor developed in-house at Tufts University's School of Engineering.
the device is designed to attach to the wound, using a silk protein hydrogel to transport small molecular compounds to the wound site.
future plans will look at additional enhancements, but so far the team's experiments have involved the release of the steroid hormone progesterone. "We study progesterone because it shows promise to promote nerve repair and regeneration," said Celia Herrera-Rincon, the study's lead author.

" it also regulates the immune response, promotes healing, and triggers the regrowth of blood vessels and bones.
", progesterone can also regulate the bioelectric state of cells, which is caused by ions outside the cell membrane, which promote cell regeneration and the formation of body patterns.
team used a bioreactor to release progesterone within 24 hours and found that it triggered nine months of changes in gene expression, nerve domination and pattern growth.
this leads to the development of a paddle-like structure rather than a typical cartilage spike.
this partial regeneration of the hind limbs could provide a basis for further study of how bioreactor devices trigger regeneration in species that would normally not regenerate limbs. "We use the bioreactor model as a new platform to find control points for the master regulator, which can be activated by drugs, trigger tissue growth and reconstruction after a very short treatment, and other factors that support the entire process of regeneration," said paper author Michael Levin.

", the model can also change over time and changes in wound position, making it a powerful tool for finding regenerative therapies. "
In search of this breakthrough, researchers have begun to explore their potential in mammalian species, " the latest study was published in cell reports.
Source: Development Zone Home.