OREANDA-NEWS  Scientists from the United States have discovered a mechanism that enables salamanders to successfully regrow lost limbs and organs, including the brain and heart. Scientists have identified which proteins are responsible for cell regeneration.

Researchers have always wanted to find out how to extend the "passport working time" of a human body. As a result, they identified two main approaches to solving the problem.

The first is to improve reducing ability. This includes medical research, the development of new treatments for disease, high-tech prosthetics, and efforts to understand the basis of tissue regeneration. The second is the fight against “programmable wear”. This is the study and correction of the aging process, which is embedded at the genetic level in human cells. Scientists explain that, in general, aging is a lack of regeneration.

American researchers from the MDI Biological Laboratory are studying this issue in detail. Everyone has long known that salamanders have the ability to regenerate tissues. For example, one of their species, called the axolotl, or the Mexican ambistoma, is able to restore almost any part of its body. There is being spoken not only about the tail or paw, but also about such organs as the lung, heart or brain.

Experts say that a human can also do something. For example, babies are able to repair heart tissue, and children under 10–11 years old are able to regrow lost fingertips. That is, scientists are sure that in a some place of the human genetic code there is an information about regeneration. But a human quickly loses this ability.

The main difference between humans and salamanders is that our body covers the site of injury with scar tissue. That is, the scar interferes with full-fledged regeneration, notes "Moscow 24". It is known that in ancient times, scarring of tissues was important for humans: a body was in a hurry to close the damage faster in order to prevent infection. However, this danger has now significantly decreased.

American biologists have found that immune cells that fight viruses and bacteria, salamander macrophages can recognize a threat. That is, with the action of infections, one mechanism is triggered, and with trauma, a completely different one. Special proteins are responsible for this, which are called toll-like receptors. Regeneration does not occur only when macrophages lose these receptors. Scientists are now starting to experiment with mice. They try to saturate the macrophages of laboratory animals with receptor proteins.