Frog regrows amputated leg after drug treatment
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent from Science | The Guardian on (#5VEWZ)
Nearly complete limb develops over 18 months, raising exciting possibilities for human patients
A frog has regrown a lost leg after being treated with a cocktail of drugs in a significant advance for regenerative medicine.
The African clawed frog, which is naturally unable to regenerate its limbs, was treated with the drugs for just 24 hours and this prompted an 18-month period of regrowth of a functional leg. The demonstration raises the prospect that in the future drugs could be used to switch on similar untapped abilities for regeneration in human patients to restore tissues or organs lost to disease or injury.
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