Scientists manage to partially regenerate the thighs of amputated frogs

The results of this research can serve as a model for new cell stimulation therapies and allow advances in the treatment of amputation lesions in humans.

A team of scientists from the American University of Tufts successfully managed to partially regenerate the legs of amputated frogs through progesterone treatment by means of a bioreactor notebook attached to the wound site, according to Cell Reports magazine released yesterday.

The findings of this investigation may be a model for new cell stimulation therapies and allow advances in the treatment of amputation lesions in humans.

Some species of the animal world such as lizards or crabs are able to regenerate, but this does not occur in the case of the African frog, known as Xenopus laevis and examined in

. Water frog is able to regenerate its limbs in the early stages of its life, but loses this ability in adulthood.

The researchers divided the frogs into three groups to perform their tasks. their experience and they all stitched the portable bioreactor right on the site of the wound left by the amputation.

Only frogs from any of the groups received progesterone in the bioreactor for 24 hours and researchers observed over a period of nine months, partial regeneration of their unobserved ends in the other two groups.

"A very brief application of the bioreactor and its payload (progesterone) caused months of growth and tissue structures," says Michael Levin, one of the study's authors and biologist at the Allen Discovery Center of Tufts University, Mbadachusetts (United States).

Frogs treated with progesterone they finally showed partially regenerated legs, with bone, innervation and vascularization, and could swim put in the water as they had not been amputated.

Progesterone is a bad hormone known for its early functions and development of pregnancy, but it has also been shown to promote the repair of nerves, blood vessels and bone tissue.

We examined progesterone because it seemed promising to promote nerve repair and regeneration. It also modulates the immune response to promote healing and triggers the regrowth of blood vessels and bones, "said neuroscientist Celia Herrero-Rincón, author of the study.

The next step for researchers is to conduct a similar study on mammals.and try to get more evidence that the drug-device combination may constitute a new model for testing therapeutic badtails to induce species regeneration.

Millions of people worldwide live with one limb lower, lower or lower than another, amputated and only in the United States, there are two million.