Monday 8 December 2014

Tadpole eye transplant shows new way to grow nerves - via Herp Digest

By, Tina Hesman Saey,  December 1, 2014, Science News

Wiring replacement organs into the body may be as easy as discharging a biological battery, new experiments with tadpoles suggest.
Scientists cut the eye from one tadpole’s head and transplanted it to another’s flank. Tweaking electrical charges in the recipient tadpole’s body cells stimulated nerve growth from the transplanted eye, researchers report December 1 in Neurotherapeutics.
The study could be an early step toward getting replacement eyes, ears and other organs to wire into a body properly, and it could possibly lead to a method for spinal cord repair.
It’s a feat scientists didn’t think was possible, says Silvia Chifflet, a cell biologist and physiologist at the Universidad de la República medical school in Montevideo, Uruguay. “We used to think that the nervous system, once severed, would not regenerate,” says Chifflet, who was not involved with the work.

No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis