Unlike salamanders, mammals can't regenerate lost limbs, but they can repair large sections of their ribs. In a new study, a team of researchers takes a closer look at rib regeneration in both humans and mice.
Using CT imaging, Srour, Mariani and their colleague Janice Lee from the University of California, San Francisco, monitored the healing of a human rib that had been partially removed by a surgeon. The eight centimeters of missing bone and one centimeter of missing cartilage did partially repair after six months.
To better understand this repair process, they surgically removed sections of rib cartilage -- ranging from three to five millimeters -- from a related mammal, mice. When they removed both rib cartilage and its surrounding sheath of tissue -- called the "perichondrium," the missing sections failed to repair even after nine months. However, when they removed rib cartilage but left its perichondrium, the missing sections entirely repaired within one to two months. They also found that a perichondrium retains the ability to produce cartilage even when disconnected from the rib and displaced into nearby muscle tissue -- further suggesting that the perichondrium contains progenitor or stem cells.
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