Everyone has heard that the lizard is able to regenerate a discarded tail. Of course, the higher the organism in the hierarchy, the more difficult are the processes of regeneration in it. It happens at different levels of organization, from cells to the level of tissues; at the level of organs in mammals, regeneration does not occur, but within the framework of one organ it does. The record holder is the liver. So the legend of Prometheus, whose liver was pecked by an eagle, and it grew again overnight, has some real grounds. Regeneration is the process of restoring the form and function of a damaged organ, tissue and cell.
Himself or help?
A whole trend in medicine has appeared, which aims to stimulate the formation of new cells and tissues in a diseased or damaged organ. But even without outside interference, the human body is capable of regeneration - wounds heal, burns heal, bones grow together. Cell regeneration allows you to create new structures to replace the destroyed ones. That is, even without special effects, the body is capable of much. Regeneration is the activity of the body aimed at restoring function. That is, for your body, it is the ability or impossibility of the body to do this or that that is primary.
Many speci alties, one specialist
The type of medical research dealing with this issue is called regenerative medicine, or tissue engineering. If you're imagining in vitro grown organs and tissues, that's not exactly what regenerative scientists are up to. In fact, to work in this field, researchers must have experience in genetics, biology and engineering at any level. That is, this is an interdisciplinary direction, and so far there are few specialists.
Working on site
Regeneration is not the creation of alternative organs in a test tube, it is work on a living person. Outside the body, only cells reproduce, and there are two approaches. In the first, own cells multiply, in the second, donor cells. It is clear that donor ones can cause rejection, so your own is always better. In addition, the immune suppression that occurs when using them impairs one's own regeneration. It is desirable to use stem cells for these purposes. Their huge advantage is the unlimited ability to
division that does not age them. But they are quite difficult to detect in the body for autodonation. Maybe,in the future, each person will preserve the blood from his own umbilical cord: it contains a lot of stem cells ideal for each type. Now this resource is either thrown away or secretly rented to cosmetic companies for money.
Tissue regeneration proceeds at a stable, but low rate - 1 mm per day, and there can be several regeneration points: that is, bruises, scratches and burns will heal at the same time. Regeneration is a capricious process, so that it goes smoothly, proper nutrition is very important. If you are recovering, you need to give up diets for a while, you will need a high-calorie protein-carbohydrate diet, because part of the protein will go to recovery, and carbohydrates will guarantee that the body does not have to destroy its own proteins.
