Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
that_punk_guy wrote:
Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
I think I need a new liver
Human liver regenerates, does it not? :-)
ah well :pint:
It does,
if it's not 'scarred' and packed with fatty tissue that leaves no room for the cells to go. Such is the definition of '
cirrhosis.' :pint:
As that link notes, the bigger problem is the inability to get blood/etc through the organ once it's scarred; in some senses the liver puts a sponge to shame, and this is why vat-growing what
seems like nothing but a big lump of cells has proved so difficult. There was a bit of a breakthrough there a few years ago, but I forget what the technology actually was, and obviously it hasn't quite 'hit the market' yet.
On the other hand, dying brain cells give off a chemical which kills other brain cells... unless that was science-fiction. :-(
Dunno. But what I do know is that there are vital brain cells, so it is quite complex. But I did not study it, so correct me if I'm wrong.
'Heat shock protein' comes to mind, though it's indeed a bit more complex than that (and HSP expression evolved to
protect cells, or at least protect cells from what might be other malfunctioning cells)... the brain turns out to have some capacity to repair itself (provided it too doesn't scar), but it's a very slow process, and damage to something important like the
hippocampus or
thalamus will likely leave you screwed for a lifetime. Blow away the
medulla and you won't have very long to fret...
(Memory says that the
thalamus may've been observed as the hidden breeding ground for new cells, which migrate out through the brain on a time scale of decades... but it's been a while since I read about that, too.)
