August 9, 2019 – Regeneration Without Damage?

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Anchor lead: Is it possible to help regenerate parts of the body without painful procedures? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Something called double stranded RNA can help the body initiate regeneration, research by Luis Garza, a dermatologist at Johns Hopkins, has shown. Garza’s research looking at what’s going on in the skin after laser treatment of skin lesions points toward this form of RNA beginning the regenerative process.

Garza: There could be a way rather than give people these painful treatments they’re getting now, I joke that these cosmetic dermatologists love to torture their patients in any way they can with needles or lasers, all those materials have in common is damage response and double stranded RNA release but what if you could circumvent the need to do damage and just directly give the double stranded RNA signal that could lead to all these benefits without these painful treatments? Those same signals could be used for healing a burn scar, helping chronic wounds, healing diabetic ulcers in the foot, so there’s a lot of different potential applications.  :31

Garza says observations in mice have validated these observations and hopes further research will show how to induce the process. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.