Labs report progress in regrowing bones
Amazing…
As military doctors in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen more horrific injuries involving skin, nerve, vascular and bone losses from explosions, they have tried to think of what more could be done for the victims besides bandaging things up and hoping for the best.
Maybe they could regrow the tissue: Grow the cartilage, grow the blood vessels, grow the nerves and even grow the bone.
It sounds a bit like science fiction. But it has become reality — including new noses, ears and even thigh bones — sooner than anyone had hoped.
And the key is stem cells — the cells found in all multicellular organisms that can renew themselves through division and morph into a diverse range of other specialized cell types.
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