Pentagon Effort Aims to Rebuild Body Parts

April 29, 2008 -- A new five-year, $250 million Defense Department initiative aims to heal soldiers and civilians by using a patient's own cells to regenerate lost body parts, starting with skin and ending with entire limbs.

"Humans can regenerate ourselves, but only up to a certain point," said Anthony Atala, a doctor at Wake Forest University who is involved in the new Army initiative, called the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (more happily known as AFIRM).

"The concept here is using not just the cells you have under normal conditions, but also using outside techniques to help speed up the natural regeneration process," said Atala.

Roadside bombs and suicide bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to a big increase in blast trauma among U.S. troops. Army doctors already make use of existing regenerative medicine to help heal soldiers wounded in battle.

Using a human patient's own cells, scientists can regenerate simple tissues like skin, cartilage, bladders, ears, noses, blood vessels and other body parts.

Regenerating the heart, lungs and entire limbs, however, becomes more complex, although promising studies have already been done, including creating a beating rat heart in a petri dish. The ultimate goal -- a new arm or leg -- is still many years away, according to scientists, but eventually even these parts will be regenerated.

"If a salamander can [regenerate a lost limb], why can't a human?" said Atala.