Breakthrough Offersโ Hope for Limb Regeneration: Researchers Identify Key Protein for โJoint Regrowth
College Station, TX – A team of researchers at Texas A&M Universityโฃ has made a notable leap forward in the pursuit of human limb regeneration,โ identifying a key protein that successfully regrows entire finger joints – including cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This finding offers newโข hope โฃfor the 2.1 million Americans currently living with limb loss, a number projected to surge to over 6.3 million by โค2060 due to rising rates of vascular diseases like diabetes.
While animals like the axolotl salamander possess remarkable regenerative abilities, allowing them to fully regrow โฃlost limbs, human regeneration is limited to the very tips of fingers, and even โขthen, onlyโ under specific conditions. The Texas A&M team, however, has demonstrated the potential to overcome this โฃlimitation.
Their research, published in the journal Bone, centers around a fibroblast growth factor (FGF) – a type โขof protein crucial forโ bone โregeneration. After testing โvarious โFGFs, researchers found that โFGF8 uniquely stimulated complete joint regeneration when implanted into tissues that typically form scar tissue.
“We certainly know that bone regeneration requires many differentโข factors, one of which is FGFs,” explained โLindsay Dawson, โคassistant professor in the