Regenerative Research

The human body is resilient to numerous environmental factors and diseases, but the body is inevitably going to receive impairments. Progressions in biotechnology and genetic techniques have permitted scientists to discover treatments and information on genes. Regenerative medicine uses biotechnology to produce treatments in vivo and in vitro procedures. Using a gene from a dissimilar organism, the green fluorescent protein method is now a significant tool used in neuroscience. In the field of tissue engineering and molecular biology, regenerative medicine is the future of medicine and organ repair.
Although it took many scientists to lead us with current technology, it wasn’t until the early 1800s that reformative aspects of biology
and medicine were discovered. Discoveries such as antibiotics and cell division revealed to the scientific community that they could manipulate the human body and construct modifications in the laboratory. However, dating back to the eighth century BC, the idea of regeneration was of attention, but not comprehended. In ancient Greek mythology, the Greeks depicted renewal views through a myth with Zeus and his liver repairing itself. Over hundreds of years, regenerative medicine has evolved and our understanding of it has grown. This field has grown from surgery and biomaterial scaffolds to tissue engineering and advanced transplants.
Once scientists realized they had the ability to recreate cells and tissues, they went into the laboratory and advanced cellular biology in order to understand the science behind tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Stem cells are at the center for this research as they have the ability of self-renewal and differentiation. As cells are the building blocks for tissues, researchers work to manipulate the scaffold, or matrix, signaling systems and their surrounding environment develop new tissue. There are multiple ways to begin the process of re-forming or mending tissues. One method involves constructing a scaffold and using the cells with growth factors to produce a tissue. When the environment is fitting, the factors will join together and form tissue. Another method uses a donor organ and takes the cells, then uses the collagen scaffold to create new tissue. These processes are then put to use to discover ways to apply it to the community. Regenerative medicine is going to be the future of the medical community as researchers seek to replace tissues or damaged organs.
Scientists are currently studying how they can use stem cells to generate new tissues and from there, safely transplant them into the human body. The main difference between traditional therapies and regenerative medicine is that regeneration works to find a cure instead of a way to treat symptoms. An example of regenerative medicine being used is through Regenerative Facial Reconstruction. Trauma, disease, or congenital malformations of the face or skull can all cause your complications in communication and quality of life. Researchers have found a technique that is still being worked on but its idea is to rely on the patient’s own cells and then train new tissues skills of expressiveness. To do this, robotic devices that replicate facial movements help muscles regrow properly. Another example of regenerative medicine being used is in Arthritis treatment. Osteoarthritis is where you are aching dilapidation of the cartilage in the linings of the joints. A new treatment uses the patient’s individual cells from a muscle biopsy and a growth factor is used to influence the growth of cartilage. To renew the cartilage, the cells are injected into arthritic joints. Although procedures such as these may be successful, others dealing with more complex systems are debated on
ethicality.
Regenerative medicine has the potential to be more than just a treatment, but a cure. Researchers are already working to use regenerative medicine for controlling stem cells through their surroundings, engineering mature bone stem cells, using lattices to help engineered tissue live. Non-therapeutic applications involve tissue chips that can be used to analyze the toxicity for an experimental medication and using tissues as biosensors to spot biological or chemical risk agents. There are already multiple therapies similar to no longer having to take insulin injections for diabetes. Although there are many positive aspects to this field, there are ethical considerations that the public community question. The idea of being able to recreate organs and use them to cure diseases and make an overall better quality of life seems far in the future.
Technology now is letting scientists see possibilities but the sources for these experiments are thought to be incorrect. Embryonic stem cells, which are the base of most of the research in regenerative medicine as they can form into almost 200 different cell types, are given the most attention as they involve destruction of the cell to obtain them. Past the embryonic stem cell controversy, as in any experiment there are human subjects. These treatments would be tested on “…subjects of patients with new, severe injuries – presumably chosen in order to provide the best data on the intervention’s potential for efficacy”, this leaves a patient with minimal time to respond to a situation and make a
decision.
Regenerative medicine is only one of the many ways that technology is being used to better the public. Green Fluorescent Protein is a method that allows scientists to target cells. Originally coming from Aequorea victoria, it contains a protein called aequorin, which issues blue light after combining with calcium is cloned and used in animals and plants globally. Osamu Shimomura, Marty Chalfie, and Roger Tsien were awarded the Chemistry Nobel Prize for the discovery and development of GFP. The concept of GFP is simple, but the science behind it requires more complex research and understanding. Although GFP is now used in biotechnology to track cancers and detect disease, it began in a jellyfish as a trait. The jellyfish contains two proteins that control the bioluminescence process. The aequorin protein and GFP undergo radiation-less energy transfer so when the GFP is inattentive, energy transfer occurs and the blue arrow enters the GFP fluorescent state, which produces green light. By joining together the GFP protein and another protein of choice from a body system, when you shine a light onto the cells the GFP will fluoresce. With this technique available to scientists, they are able to use it many beneficial ways.
The GFP technique has become similar to a twenty-first century microscope. Green Fluorescent Protein can fluoresce without substrate therefore it doesn’t change the protein that is being fluoresced. This allows for GFP to label genes for clarifying their expression, examining protein-protein action, act as a biosensor and several others. One way the GFP technique was used is in the “Brainbow”. At Harvard brain center, transgenic mice with fluorescent multicolored neurons were created. Using this strategy, scientists are able to map the neural circuits of the brain. Because the neurons are individually colored, the complex system will be more clear and will lead to ability in recognizing malfunctioning wiring in neurodegenerative diseases similar to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Another use of GFP involved tracking cancer genes. The Anticancer Inc. created a nude fluorescent mouse and injected it with human cancer cells. The cancers cells are easily seen as red under the blue light so researches are able to observe metastasis and angiogenesis in hope to better understand the cancer. Scientists are just now getting a glimpse the future possibilities in medicine and science. With these new techniques coming into light, researchers will be able to save millions of lives and also increase quality of life. Regenerative medicine and GFP are still under the works but both show potential to save money in the medical community but also be an outbreak for new biotechnology. Creating new organs, mending broken organs and seeing the disease is no longer just a fantasy.