Breakthrough Offers Hope for Limb Regeneration: Researchers Identify Key Protein for Joint Regrowth
College Station, TX – A team of researchers at Texas A&M University has made a notable leap forward in the pursuit of human limb regeneration, identifying a key protein that successfully regrows entire finger joints – including cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This finding offers new hope for the 2.1 million Americans currently living with limb loss, a number projected to surge to over 6.3 million by 2060 due to rising rates of vascular diseases like diabetes.
While animals like the axolotl salamander possess remarkable regenerative abilities, allowing them to fully regrow lost limbs, human regeneration is limited to the very tips of fingers, and even then, only under specific conditions. The Texas A&M team, however, has demonstrated the potential to overcome this limitation.
Their research, published in the journal Bone, centers around a fibroblast growth factor (FGF) – a type of protein crucial for bone regeneration. After testing various FGFs, researchers found that FGF8 uniquely stimulated complete joint regeneration when implanted into tissues that typically form scar tissue.
“We certainly know that bone regeneration requires many different factors, one of which is FGFs,” explained Lindsay Dawson, assistant professor in the
