I came across this & thought it may be of interest some here.
http://currents.ucsc.edu/04-05/01-03/regeneration.asp

Brian

Brian, thanks for the article. I founf it quite interesting.

Michele

..and i only thought they were only good for aerating our soil

Perhaps this is an old wive's tale, but I remember being told that if you cut an earth worm in half it grows a new half, to become whole again. I don't remember having any luck growing more worms as a kid, and, I decided, as an adult that, cutting animals in half, unless I planned on eating them, was not very nice.

There must be some biology majors here, that can elaborate on all the species that grow new parts. I also remember something about tails, leg's etc. on amphibians..... So, do earthworms really regenerate?

And yes, we do share something like 99% of our genome with the worm and most critters on earth. (Pretty amazing, because we think we are 'all that') It is that 1% that we don't share, that makes us mysterious humans.

Never-the-less, I do hope they continue to try to grow new nerves, and altho small fibers can regenerate, it would be nice if they could figure out how to arrest small fiber neuropathy due to any cause.

I do think that these are steps in the right direction to a very complex understanding of the nerve regeneration in different environments, as they say it gives them many more opportunities to investigate further into all of this,
i just hope these amazing people are funded properly to be able to continue their very important work, the future of helping people with damaged nerves is really in their hands.
I also recall something about cutting a worm in half and they regrow, hopefully one day these very smart people will be able to explain why.

all the best,
Brian

I still feel guilty about cutting those poor worms in half.

It's good to know that studies are being done on regeneration...as so very little is known in this quarter. More needs to be done, just wish it got beyond the worm or rat stages. Sigh.

Don't worry about the worms tho? It does say that they were anethestized before any surgeries were done. Tho how one would figure out how to dose knock out drops to a worm is beyond me!

Ironically, it seems that the testing and research for worms is parallel to our own nerve bipsies? Cut it out and look at it...and see what happens.

I for one, truly appreciate all those worms and rats that give their lives for US...tho it mite not pay off for US per-se in our lifetimes?

Hugs and hope to all! - j

C wasn't it 9th grade biolgy,oh I also feel guity as well..
There have been other ways ,many years ago this was attempted,
never enough backing or money..Well never say never,hmmm. Sue
Never eat won ton soup ,when your stomck says,ensure..ohhh.

, well i can't say i do, but i think i might have sadistic nature, so others tell me

Yes i agree Dahlek, i don't think the answers will be known for our generation,
but you never know though, things seem to be moving a lot faster these days than they use to, i suppose it all falls back to the availability of the almighty dollar though.