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Scientists discover salamander secrets to regrowing limbs and organs

Thanks to startling new research on immune cells in salamanders, medical science may be able to help humans one day regrow their limbs and regenerate their organs.

The key? Salamanders’ immune systems hold the secret to regrowing limbs. It could also help them regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, researchers have discovered.

Scientists from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University found that immune cells — known as macrophages — are removed in salamanders, the amphibians lose their capability to regrow a limb. Instead, their bodies formed scar tissue.

Head researcher Dr. James Godwin says this brings scientists closer to understanding the biological conditions needed to regenerate body parts in humans.

“Previously, we thought that macrophages were negative for regeneration, and this research shows that that’s not the case – if the macrophages are not present in the early phases of healing, regeneration does not occur,” he explained.

The next step is to discover how macrophages are contributing to regeneration. In the future, this could lead to treatments modify the human immune system to trigger regenerative processes pathway.

Salamanders react to injury in a clever way. Their bodies complete restore tissue in any part of their system including organs. The regrown tissue is scar free and an almost perfect copy of what was lost at the injury site before the injury happened.

Godwin says that studying the healing processes of salamanders could lead to new cures for a number of common conditions, such as heart and liver diseases.

Discovery of scar-free healing could also drastically kick start patients’ recovery after their have surgery.

“We may be able to turn up the volume on some of these processes. We need to know exactly what salamanders do and how they do it well, so we can reverse-engineer that into human therapies,” explained Godwin.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Improve Your Memory by Listening to White Noise While You Sleep

If you’re not willing to send electrical shocks through your brain – “mild” as they might be – to become smarter, here’s a much gentler option: play sounds while you sleep. Researchers have found that “carefully timed” sounds, like the rise and fall of waves washing against the shore, can help people remember things that they learned the previous day.

I predict sales of white noise machines to increase in the near future.

In the human brain a network of neurons are often activated together. The collective rise and fall of activity of the network produces oscillations, the lines we see in an EEG. At different times the brain oscillates at different frequencies. During sleep the brain produces slow, <1 Hz oscillations – hence the term “slow-wave sleep” – and these oscillations are thought to be important for consolidating memories. The idea that the scientists at the University of Tübingen in Germany wanted to test was whether or not auditory stimulation that boosted the slow-wave oscillations also boosted memory.

The study included 11 people who learned word associations right before they went to bed. Their word association memory was tested before they went to sleep and then again the following day. While they slept, they were played short durations of pink noise, a hissing sound similar to white noise. Importantly, the pink noise sounds were timed to the sleeping person’s “slow-wave” brain oscillations. When the individuals received the pink noise stimulation they were able to remember twice as many word associations than without the stimulation. When they repeated the experiment with pink noise that was not synchronized to the slow-waves, they saw no improvement in memory.

Monitoring the brain waves with EEG, the researchers also saw that the sound stimuli actually boosted the ongoing slow-wave oscillations. This led the researchers to suggest that pink sound stimulation could not only boost memory, but it might also help people sleep better.

CLICK HERE to read Peter Murray’s complete article in Singularity Hub

Little Miss Wife: Wine is good for your health and soul

We were quite taken by this piece by the blogger Kay Svela who writes LittleMissWife.com as she explore the joy of wine consumption, not only from a perspective of giving up “personal house rules” to allow for a little joy but also for the health benefits of wine that she outlines later in the post.

Check it out: Wine drinking is good for your health and soul

Lab-grown kidneys may soon be a reality for humans

Dr Harald Ott is creating kidneys in his lab

Researchers have succeeded in building a functioning kidney built from newborn rat cells.
And it’s being called a major step towards personalized transplant organs for humans.

Dr. Harald Ott of Massachusetts General Hospital and his team of scientists grew a kidney using an experimental technique that has successfully been used to make working hearts, lungs and livers.

Ott took a rat kidney and scrubbed out its working cells using medical detergent. What was left behind was a white cellular matrix, a scaffold made of collagen that gives the organ its form.

The research team added kidney and blood vessel cells from baby rats and cultured the growing live organ for 12 days. The cells grew to cover the scaffold. The team then put the kidney into a living rat. It successfully filtered the animal’s blood and produced urine.

The process builds on techniques designed by the American bioengineer Doris Taylor, who first used it in 2008. Taylor described the collagen structure left behind after the bleach has done its work as being like the “gristle” in a steak.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, 1 in 10 American adults, more than 20 million, have some level of chronic kidney disease. By the end of 2009, more than 871,000 people were being treated for end-stage renal disease in the USA.

Hugh Hefner’s Midwestern longevity diet

At 86, Hugh Hefner has a staff of chefs available at his disposal at all hours of the day, but the Playboy founder eats pretty much the same thing every day.

Most meals consist of: Midwestern comfort foods like fried chicken, pot roast, lamb chops as well as mash potatoes.

Hefner also like sweets, consuming oatmeal raisin cookies, pies and cakes.

While hos diet is not the healthiest, his longevity secret probably lies in portion control and a structured eating schedule.

After hos stroke in 1985, Hef’s executive chef added more vegetables and reduce salt in the diet. Hef also quit smoking at that time too.

No word, however, on his consumption of rabbit.