Is it possible to regenerate our organs? Scientists regenerate organ in mice in world-first breakthrough.

British scientists have been able to fully restore an organ in a living animal for the first time - a breakthrough which may pave the way for the technique to be used in humans.

Scientists rebuilt the thymus of very old mice, re-establishing its health to that seen in younger ones.

In a recent breakthrough, a team of researchers at Edinburgh University managed to successfully rebuild the thymus of old mice so that the organ was restored to the same state as that seen in much younger animals. The process involved reactivating a pre-existing natural mechanism responsible for rejuvenating the organ that shuts down with age.

The thymus is the first organ to deteriorate as people age. This shrinking is one of the main reasons the immune system becomes less effective and we lose the ability to fight off new infections, such as flu, as we get older.
Regenerative medicine is a fast-growing area of research, mainly focused on stem cells - the master cells that act as a source for all types of cells and tissues in the body. One of the central aims is to harness the body's own repair mechanisms and manipulate them in a controlled way to treat disease.

Blackburn's team, whose work was published on Tuesday in the journal Development, said they targeted a part of the process by which the thymus degenerates - a protein called FOXN1 that helps control how key genes in the thymus are switched on.
They used genetically modified mice to enable them to increase levels of this protein using chemical signals.
By doing so, they managed to instruct immature cells in the thymus - similar to stem cells - to rebuild the organ in the older mice.
Rob Buckle, the MRC's head of regenerative medicine, said this success with the mouse thymus suggests organ regeneration in mammals can be directed by manipulating a single protein - something he said could have broad implications for other areas of regenerative biology.

In what is being hailed as a world first, scientists have succeeded in regenerating an organ in mice.

In the popular science fiction TV series 'Doctor Who' the titular Time Lord famously cheats death by regenerating his entire body and now scientists believe that it may be possible to do something similar with specific organs in humans.

"By targeting a single protein, we have been able to almost completely reverse age-related shrinking of the thymus," said Professor Clare Blackburn. "However, before we test this in humans we need to carry out more work to make sure the process can be tightly controlled."