Doctors Advance in Helping Body to Repair Itself

Research is showing that the body can heal itself.

Vital Signs from NYTimes.com
Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Doctors Advance in Helping Body to Repair Itself
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Enshrined in textbooks, taught in schools and rarely
questioned was one truism of medicine: the only organs
that can regenerate their cells are the bone marrow,
the liver and, maybe, the kidney.

But now, researchers say, they are not so sure.

To their astonishment, scientists at Harvard Medical
School recently discovered that in mice, the
insulin-producing cells of the pancreas could
regenerate. Other experts, at New York Medical
College, just reported compelling evidence that human
hearts can grow new cells.

The findings have enormous implications, scientists
say, although it can be a long and harrowing path from

observations like these to medical treatments.

The encouraging news is that the body has an
unappreciated capacity to repair itself. But in making
that discovery, researchers also found a potential
therapeutic stumbling block: an underlying disease,
like diabetes, which kills pancreas cells, may outpace
the regeneration of those cells. Even adding new
cells, like ones derived from sources like stem cells,
may be futile. To regenerate tissues and organs,
it may be necessary first to cure an underlying
disease.

Nonetheless, some medical experts are optimistic.
"These are really intriguing results," said Dr.
Gregory Stock, who directs the program on medicine,
technology and society at the University of California
at Los Angeles School of Medicine. The results show
that "there may be ways of eliciting responses from
the body that we would not have dared to look for," he
said.

Vital Signs from NYTimes.com