The muscle cells of nonregenerating vertebrates don't respond to the serum, however, indicating that they are not sensitive to this still unidentified factor. If feasible, overcoming this insensitivity might prove invaluable. Cardiac specialists might then learn to trigger damaged heart muscle to replace itself. Such an advance could be possible even if scientists never obtain sufficient expertise to regenerate complex structures like limbs, suggests Brockes. Given the potential value of regeneration in medicine, Stocum finds it puzzling that so many scientists choose to study cell and organ transplantation or work on building artificial hearts, livers, and limbs rather than investigate animals that can regrow parts of themselves.
Regeneration is clearly superior to any kind of transplantation or artificial tissues.
Dinsmore, C.E. 1996. Stocum, D.L. 1997. New tissues from old.