Pentagon-funded research into regrowing limbs lost in war

[flashl]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon is joining with universities and hospitals in a 250-million-dollar research institute to develop ways to help wounded soldiers regenerate skin, muscle and even limbs from their own stem cells, officials said Thursday.

The army's surgeon general said he envisions the day when adult stem cells will be harvested before a soldier goes into the battle and then used to regrow new limbs within days of suffering a combat wound.

...

"We'll use the soldiers' own stem cells to repair nerve damage, to re-grow muscles and tendons, to repair burn wounds, and to help them heal without scarring," he said.

Techniques to salvage and reconstruct damaged limbs, hands, fingers, ears and noses, and reconstruct damaged craniums will also be developed, he said.

The new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine will fund and focus the research efforts of two consortia of universities and hospital research centers.

YN

[Hugabear]

1. While part of me wants to think they're being altruistic about this...

Another part of me thinks they just want to get these soldiers back on the battlefield.

[flashl]

2. I suspect you are right, it's hard to reconcile vets denial of healthcare with this. nt

[BonnieJW]

4. Me, too.

They can keep patching them up over and over and send them back. Now if they could figure out how to do a brain transplant and eliminate that pesky PTSD, they'd have a brand new GI Joe every time! As it is now, they have to send injured and disabled soldiers back into battle injured and disabled.

[trotsky]

3. The lowly salamander...

is the only vertebrate that can regrow limbs. Fascinating article in a recent Scientific American about it, and how scientists think the same physiological process could be triggered in humans.