Introducing Developmental Signaling into Adults in Order to Produce Regeneration

Is it possible to safely introduce developmental signaling characteristic of the developing embryo and fetus into an aged adult in order to spur greater regeneration of tissues? The past decades of work on embryonic stem cell therapies and induced pluripotent stem cell therapies, and the slow investigation of how most of these therapies produce their benefits via cell signaling, suggest that this goal is in principle possible. Similarly, research into species capable of proficient regeneration, such as salamanders and zebrafish, suggests broad similarities between the biochemistry of organ development and the biochemistry of organ regrowth. The issue for we mammals has all along been the question of cancer. Would developmental signaling result in an unacceptable cancer risk, either by directly breaking regulatory systems important in tissue maintenance, or by forcing greater cell activity in an environment of age-related damage? Researchers continue to investigate the mechanisms of stem cell therapies, the contents of pro-regenerative extracellular vesicles and their effects on bystander cells, and partial cell reprogramming in vivo. As this work progresses, numerous potential approaches are arising to the delivery of specific developmental signals. The paper here takes a look at one very narrow slice of this part of the regenerative medicine field, what is know of developmental peptide signals, and particularly thymosin beta-4, that might be exploited to boost ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs