TY  - JOUR
A1  - Leppik, Liudmila
A1  - Froemel, Dara
A1  - Slavici, Andrei
A1  - Ovadia, Zachri N.
A1  - Hudak, Lukasz
A1  - Henrich, Dirk
A1  - Marzi, Ingo
A1  - Barker, John Howard
T1  - Effects of electrical stimulation on rat limb regeneration, a new look at an old model
T2  - Scientific reports
N2  - Limb loss is a devastating disability and while current treatments provide aesthetic and functional restoration, they are associated with complications and risks. The optimal solution would be to harness the body's regenerative capabilities to regrow new limbs. Several methods have been tried to regrow limbs in mammals, but none have succeeded. One such attempt, in the early 1970s, used electrical stimulation and demonstrated partial limb regeneration. Several researchers reproduced these findings, applying low voltage DC electrical stimulation to the stumps of amputated rat forelimbs reporting "blastema, and new bone, bone marrow, cartilage, nerve, skin, muscle and epiphyseal plate formation". In spite of these encouraging results this research was discontinued. Recently there has been renewed interest in studying electrical stimulation, primarily at a cellular and subcellular level, and studies have demonstrated changes in stem cell behavior with increased proliferation, differentiation, matrix formation and migration, all important in tissue regeneration. We applied electrical stimulation, in vivo, to the stumps of amputated rat limbs and observed significant new bone, cartilage and vessel formation and prevention of neuroma formation. These findings demonstrate that electricity stimulates tissue regeneration and form the basis for further research leading to possible new treatments for regenerating limbs.
Y1  - 2015
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/41953
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-419537
SN  - 2045-2322
N1  - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
VL  - 5
IS  - Nr. 18353
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
CY  - Berlin ; Heidelberg ; New York ; Hong Kong ; London ; Milan ; Paris ; Tokyo
ER  -