Regrowing Human Body Parts - Is It Possible?

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The idea of being able to regrow lost limbs (and other body parts) has been a dream of we humans for hundreds and thousands of years. Ever since we first observed a whole range of animals regenerating lost limbs, tails, heart tissue, spinal cord tissue and more, we've wanted to figure out how to do it ourselves. And in the age of genetic modification, with technologies like CRISPR and stem cell tech, it seems like it should be something we can make work. But how feasible is it really? I take a look at this question and talk about how certain animals like Axolotls undertake the incredible process!

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Video created by: Tom Carroll
Aspect Science

Thanks for watching!

#geneticmodification #science

[dolgolae]

The content you put out baffles me how you don't have more subscribers

[Master_Therion]

My cousin is a double amputee. He was in an industrial accident that basically crushed the left side of his body, lost his left arm and leg and parts of his torso and hip.
He almost died, but now he's... all right.

[ozymantiasVI]

2:24 and even their BRAINS! Efficient regeneration by activation of neurogenesis in homeostatically quiescent regions
of the adult vertebrate brain - Daniel A. Berg et al, 2010

[epochstories]

This is such an interesting topic! Loved the animation too!

[casparvoncampenhausen]

How do you have only 56k subscribers?!
You are hands down one of my favorite channels and it is a joy to watch your videos every time

[AlejandroFerrariMc]

Maybe they can regrow my broken heart.

[lessalazar]

The quality of your videos is insane!! Feels like I'm watching something that was made by a entire team of people.

[afterburner]

C'mon YouTube enough screwing around, time to put this guy on recommended and trending for everyone and make him famous already.

[ruparbo]

I'm dont have my limb, I'm just 15. I don't have my limb since my birth and I use artificial limbs (prosthetic). After I grew up and started understanding that I'm not like others. I can't walk like a normal person does and can't run like my friends. I have gone through a lot of stress and I am still facing it :( I just research about cloning and regeneration of limbs and just hoping that one day I wake up and get to know that it has been found and regeneration of body parts are possible. Just hope it comes true. I have gone through a lot but I am still try to keep a little bit of smile on my face. I got bullied and a lot of stuff and I just keep my fingers crossed that ONE I'll get my limb back.

[luisston]

Imagine your missing limb being grown from your cells and artificially aged to your current age. I can’t even begin to fathom the complexity involved not to mention the fact that it’s just a fantasy at this point. I can’t help but think that even if this were possible there would be unforeseen complications, like the limb needing tons of physical therapy in order to develop the muscle mass and coordination of the limb that was lost. Even so, this circumstance would be better in the end than even the best prosthetic (currently anyways).

[chlopaczekhula]

Great video and very informative! I have no idea why you don’t have more subscribers

[Siriuslyyy]

He's good with physics, he's good with biology, he's excellent with editing, he's great with writing scripts, and he is very very handsome. How does he have everything? How???

[najrenchelf]

Me seeing the title and thumbnail: ok, Quarantine has finally taken Tom’s sanity!

[LeahandLevi]

Hahaha this is like a classic brain wormhole during self isolation. Tom just happens to have the skills to manifest that on screen. Another great video man!

[RileysFilms]

My axolotl lost a toe and ended up growing a mini-hand in its place, complete with a new set of toes.

[viktorlenart]

Dude, how do you only have 56k subscribers? Your content is amazing!

[rocky]

Many people say that it is possible to increase the height by stem cells after the growth plate is closed. How it works You can make a video on this topic

[dylan]

Great video :)
Axolotls are incredible animals with so much more to be discovered about the them.

It will be interesting to see how CRISPR technology will be used if we discover which genes allow for this regeneration

[KiraDays]

My family called me an axelottle so surely i can regenerate

[TheKhopesh]

I kept waiting for Tom to mention Lee Spievack, the man who literally regrew about half a finger joint. (/watch?v=DtBUM51t4iw)
We're talking perfect reformation of bone, nerve, tendon, blood vessel, fingernail, and other tissues just like how a salamander does!
When Lee lost his fingertip in a work accident, his bother (a cellular regeneration specialist) sent him a tube of Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM) powder harvested from a pig's bladder and then specially processed.

ECM is essentially the scaffolding that your body uses to hold all your cells together into a human shape.
Most notably, the ECM is responsible for telling your cells where to grow, what organs to be, etc. just like when you're a fetus developing in the womb (or a salamander regrowing a limb).
The body will regrow what's missing within the powder, and as you apply more and more powder (once every two days), the body will keep filling in cells between and around the ECM, slowly regrowing the missing tissue until your body realizes it's grown back to where it should be.

Pigs have tissue so close to humans that we've been transplanting whole heart valves from pigs into humans for decades now.
Their ECM (found in it's purest, easiest-to-harvest form, in the pig's bladder) is so close to human ECM that it can simply be dried out and formed into a usable shape (usually ground up into a fine powder, but sometimes dried into strips or threads and woven into a vaguely-fabric-like material for surgical implantation) before being applied to a wound or other area of damage on/in a human.
It's just a particular mix of proteins and other materials, so it's not a cell type, and has no "blood type" style markers.
This means it doesn't matter what your blood type is.

By applying ECM to a wound, your body's natural scar-tissue-growth response sees the ECM and this triggers the fetus new-growth response instead of scar formation.
So far, it hasn't been able to grow entire limbs, but it has been able to regrow smaller things normally thought entirely irreversible.
Things like finger tips, finger nails, ear lobes, and in one case a man with cancer (caused by severe prolonged acid reflux) had a large cancer-ridden portion of his esophagus cut out and replaced with formed layers of ECM which regrew the entire section of his esophagus with new, healthy cancer-free cells.

I have no idea why this stuff isn't used in EVERY first aid kit, ambulance, hospital, and various surgical procedures... except that it's not something companies can make huge money off of, while the inferior alternatives are highly profitable to them, .