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Q: Liver Regeneration ( Answered 3 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Liver Regeneration
Category: Science > Biology
Asked by: abcd-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 10 Apr 2002 11:44 PDT
Expires: 17 Apr 2002 11:44 PDT
Question ID: 50
Is liver the only organ of an adult human body that can regenerate?
Answer  
Subject: Re: Liver Regeneration
Answered By: dscotton-ga on 10 Apr 2002 11:54 PDT
Rated:3 out of 5 stars
 
As you already seem aware, the human liver can regenerate to such an extent 
that a living person can donate part of his liver to someone else and within 
several weeks, the two parts of the liver will regenerate into functioning, 
near normal sized organs.  Here is an article discussing liver regeneration:

http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/mayo/10/20/liver.regeneration/index.html

As far as I've been able to determine, no other organ in an adult human body 
will regenerate naturally to that extend.  As Seth pointed out in his comment, 
skin (and bones, and other parts of the body) can repair themselves after minor 
trauma.  However, medical researchers are currently looking for ways to 
stimulate more extensive regeneration of the human body.  This is a big part of 
what stem cell research is about, since stem cells have the ability to produce 
many other types of cells.  Here's an article that describes progress some 
Chinese researchers have made in regenerating organs, specifically regenerating 
skin from deep burns without the use of tissue grafting:

http://www.mebo.com.cn/english1/research-11r.htm
abcd-ga rated this answer:3 out of 5 stars
I think there are other organs which can regenerate , definately not to the 
extent that kidney can. If  more infromation could be provided about those 
organs

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