Scientists have grown bones in mice and rabbits from deer antlers
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The technology should help regenerate the human skeletal system in the future
A population of stem cells with a strong regenerative potential was found in deer antlers. It was found by employees of the Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xian, Jilin Agricultural University and other scientific centers in China, whose article was published not so long ago in Science.
Most mammals have long lost the ability to regenerate certain organs, with the only exception being the annual renewal of deer antlers. This valuable model was taken by scientists to study organ regeneration in mammals.
In fact, if we talk about regenerative medicine, then they learned how to grow bone tissue a long time ago – bone marrow stem cells are used for this. They can form bone and cartilage with some degree of efficiency.
However, the researchers had an assumption that stem cells isolated from deer antlers would work much faster. The hypothesis was tested experimentally.
As the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences explained to MK, at the first stage, scientists injected deer antler cells into mice. The injection was administered under the kidney capsule. At the second stage, the same portion of stem cells was injected into the rabbit’s femur. Control groups of animals were injected with stem cells isolated from their bone marrow. In both cases, bone-like structures from deer cells formed about 20 percent more efficiently than control samples.
This study, in principle, gives hope that in the future, cells from deer antlers will help people build bone tissue faster. However, according to scientists, this is very far away. It is not a fact that in humans, cells from the horns will take root better than those isolated from the bone marrow. However, the authors of the article do not rule out that they can “teach” our own stem cells to develop as efficiently as deer ones.
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