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A microscopic view shows a colony of human embryonic stem cells (light blue) growing on fibroblasts (dark blue) - Source: Reuters -
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A Dunedin scientist says stem cells which he has cloned from the base of deer antlers are providing clues which may one day make it possible to regenerate severed human limbs.
Deer antler is the only mammal organ that annually regenerates and AgResearch Invermay scientist Chunyi Li has isolated the cells that allow deer to re-grow new antlers. No other mammal can naturally regenerate any lost organ, but a 200kg red deer can produce as much as 30kg of antler in as little as three months.
Li told The Otago Daily Times he has shown that previously unrecognised stem-cells able to grow into specialised cell types - skin, nerves, blood vessels, fibrous tissue, catiliage and bone - control the process.
The stem cells are in the pedicles, bony protuberances on the skull which are triggered to grow each spring.
Understanding this process and how to replicate it in humans could take researchers close to an ultimate target of regenerating organs or limbs removed through trauma or surgery.
"We know, based on antler regeneration, that bone membrane cells are crucial. If we can turn on cells (in humans) that resemble pedicle membrane bone cells, you may be able to deflect scar formations towards a regeneration pathway," he says.
Li says his breakthrough came when he realised an estimated 3.3 million cells in a 2mm thick layer around the pedicle stimulated up to 20kg of antler growth in just 60 days.
"It made me ask if it was stem cells that created that growth."
A spokesman for AgResearch says there was no continuing work related to developing the discovery for use in human medicine.
