Rabbits grow their own joint replacements in study

This is great news if rabbits are ever stuck in Obamas improved Medicare.

nibor, what an idiotic comment. I don't know about the rest of the reader community, but I am getting sick and tired of every article published being fodder for ridiculous political comments like this.

nibor, what obama have to do with it? idiot

This should go over big in California, being able to grow your own joint replacement. Science is amazing.

These are very exciting times! Those who wish to learn more about this topic might also consider Robert Becker's work on micro currents and re-growth of limbs.

Live With Intention,

DrBillToth.com/blog

An interesting note about regeneration: It has been known since Galen's time that if the tip of a child's finger above the first joint was cut off and then ONLY wrapped and kept clean that it would completely regenerate, including the bone, fingernail and fingerprint.

However, modern physicians have been studied time and again on this issue. They simply cannot or will not simply tend the fingertip minimally and let it regenerate. They have to "clean it up, sew it up, or otherwise treat it" because that is what they are trained to do. They seem to have such a mental block against allowing natural regeneration that there are exactly zero cases each year in this country that regenerate. In Europe the number of mini-amputations that regenerate are too numerous to count since this sort of injury is all too common to children everywhere.

Just thought that was interesting. A friend conducted such a study among physicians on staff at the University of Alabama Birmingham and received truly bizarre responses to his interviews. Everything from cursing and threats of physical violence to flat denials that such a thing could possibly be true. I have even listened to some of the tapes.

This is so exciting. I am 29 years old with pretty bad arthritis in my hip. It's great to know that there are so many advances in joint replacement and I may have many options when I have to get a hip replacement within 15 years.

There is so much promise with regenerative science. What an opportunity for this country to take a technological lead again.......if we could ever just toss religious crap out the window and really research the potential of stem cells......embryonic or otherwise.

Many years ago, I met a cell scientist - a real, PhD scientist - whose name I have forgotten, was able to establish a chicken's ability to grow teeth!

As I recall, he used mouse mesenchymal tissue from under the teeth of these animals and, after a stint in special cell culture medium, transplanted that tissue into chickens mouths and produced toothlike structures.

That was nearly 40 years ago!

And, now, the current earth-shattering press release is that something siimilar was done in rabbits to regrow damaged bones.

The earth-shattering news flash here is JUST another transplant experiment coming after having had decades of transplantation of everything from corneas to white cells to complete hearts!

Before someone without appropriate scientific background reports - or comments on - ANY finding not subjected to rigorous peer-review in a reputable scientific journal, must await minimally, complete reproduction of the findings by OTHER scientist.

Otherwise, it rremains just a press release.

This is all great stuff but I see some obvious hurdles that might be difficult to overcome. A human knee or hip joint is a little more complex if only for the size. Another is the transition period where the original joint is removed to allow for the growth of the new joint. A rabbit might have been hopping around in three weeks but I just can't see a human hip joint regenerating in such a short time span plus there is period of rehab for the patient. Realistically, sounds like a lot of down time requiring the patient to be immobilized. Other than developing a technique to grow joints in the lab then transplant them, I don't see this happening in humans in my life time.