Everyone heard that the lizard is able to restore the discarded tail. Of course, the higher the organism in the hierarchy, the more difficult the processes of regeneration are in it. It happens at different levels of organization, from cells to tissue level, at the level of organs in mammals, regeneration does not occur, but within the framework of one organ - completely. The record holder is the liver. So the legend of Prometheus, whose liver was pecked by an eagle, and it re-grew over night, has some real reasons. Regeneration is the process of restoring the shape and function of a damaged organ, tissue and cell.
Himself or help?
A whole new direction in medicine has emerged, which aims to stimulate the formation of new cells and tissues in a diseased or damaged organ. But even without outside interference, the human body is capable of regeneration - wounds heal, burns are healed, bones grow together. Cell regeneration allows you to create new structures to replace destroyed ones. That is, even without special influences, the body is capable of much. Regeneration is the activity of the body aimed at restoring function. That is, it is the ability or inability of the body to do this or that that is primary for your body.
Many specialties, one specialist
The type of medical research that deals with this issue is called regenerative medicine, or tissue engineering. If you imagine the organs and tissues grown in vitro, then this is not quite what the regenerative scientists are doing. In fact, to work in this field, researchers must have experience in genetics, biology and engineering at any level. That is, this is an interdisciplinary direction, and so far there are few specialists.
Work on site
Regeneration is not the creation of alternative organs in vitro, it is work on a living person. Outside the body, only cells reproduce, and there are two approaches. In the first, own cells multiply, in the second, donor cells. It is clear that donor ones can cause rejection, therefore their own are always better. In addition, the suppression of immunity that occurs during their use, worsens its own regeneration. It is advisable to use stem cells for these purposes . Their great advantage is unlimited ability to
a division that does not age them. But they are quite difficult to detect in the body for auto donation. Perhaps in the future, each person will conserve blood from his own umbilical cord: it contains a lot of stem cells that are ideally suited for each type. Now this resource is either thrown away or secretly surrendered to money for cosmetic companies.
Tissue regeneration proceeds with a stable, but low speed - 1 mm per day, and there may be several regeneration points: that is, bruises, scratches and burns will heal at the same time. Regeneration is a capricious process, so that it goes smoothly, proper nutrition is very important. If you are recovering, you need to give up diets for a while, you will need high-calorie protein-carbohydrate food, because part of the protein will go into recovery, and carbohydrates will guarantee that the body does not have to destroy its own proteins.