British scientists have, for the first time, used regenerative medicine to fully restore an organ in a living animal, a discovery they say may pave the way for similar techniques to be used in humans, reports [s]Business Day[/s]. The [b]University of Edinburgh[/b] team, whose work was published in the journal [s]Development[/s], rebuilt the thymus of very old mice by reactivating a natural mechanism that gets shut down with age. The regenerated thymus was not only similar in structure and genetic detail to one in a young mouse, the scientists said, but also able to function again, with the treated mice beginning to make more T-cells, a type of white blood cell key to fighting infections. However, said research leader Dr Clare Blackburn from [b]Edinburgh’s Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine[/b], while the treated mice were making T-cells, her research could not yet establish whether the immune systems of the older mice were strengthened.
[link url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/life/health/2014/04/09/medical-boost-for-elderly-mice-humans]Full Business Day report[/link]
[link url=http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/8/1627.full]Development full study[/link]