Question asked by Gary Pascoe Click here to open up the wound healing audio clips Prof. Mark Ferguson Read my answer below, or click on the image to hear what I learnt when I went to speak to Prof. Mark Ferguson from Manchester University, an expert on wounds who thinks we have lost the ability to regenerate limbs in favour of quick healing. So for the newts out there, here is my three-step guide to leg regeneration. There are various ways to achieve this, unfortunately all result in a bleeding wound. However, the blood is vital as it contains an enzyme called thrombin, involved in clotting but also in triggering regeneration. Return cells at surface of wound to embryonic state.
Every cell contains all the instructions necessary to make the complete organism.
However, as we age gene 'switches' are flipped until most adult cells cannot divide or make new cell types. In newts, thrombin winds back the cell's molecular clock until it thinks that it is part of an embryo again. The cell can now divide and make all the cell types required for bones, nerves, muscles and so on. Check which body part you lost. It would be unfortunate to regenerate the wrong body part.