Israeli Limb Replantation Breakthrough
Modern techniques used in the field of organ reconstruction are encouraging: Israeli scientists have managed to successfully replant a rat’s amputated limb after its preliminary cryopreservation and thawing. Although the research is still in its early stages, scientists are confident that this is a major breakthrough that will allow to save and restore limbs of injured patients in the future.
At the moment, the experiment was conducted only on rats. The amputated limb of the rodent was frozen, then defrosted and transplanted back into the body of the same rat. In just a month, the animal had fully recovered and was able to move fully. This cannot but inspire hope, but scientists are not going to stop only at limbs, and after the publication of successful results, they began to work on those tissues that are difficult to freeze: adipose tissue, pancreatic tissue with the ability to produce insulin, ovarian tissue.
Prof. Eyal Gor
The field of reconstruction has successfully existed and developed in plastic surgery and microsurgery for many years, for example, 15 years ago, specialists were already using equipment that allows you to connect nerves and blood vessels smaller than 1 mm. But only now have technologies reached a level that allows you to make the necessary breakthrough.
The cryopreservation method used in the research was developed back in 1991 and has been successfully used to freeze eggs and embryos for several decades. The technique is called vitrification, or ultra-fast freezing. This is the process of transition of a liquid when the temperature drops to a glassy state without the formation of ice crystals. In this case, the material will be physically solid, but chemically it will be liquid.
The initial studies were partially successful: it was possible to make the limb remain alive for several days after transplantation. According to one of the scientists directly involved in the study, this is a very complex process, because you need to amputate the limb, then transfer it to be frozen at a very low temperature of liquid nitrogen, and after defrosting, re-sew it, reconnecting the vessels and nerves. At that time, technology did not yet allow working with large organs and tissues. It seemed that there was initial success, but the researchers thought it was not enough.
Four years ago, the work continued, but it was decided to change two main points: the cooling rate and the freezing temperature. The process was carried out on a rat: the limb was amputated, frozen, left in this state for several days, and re-sewn, connecting all the anatomical structures. Fortunately, a month later, the scientists saw that the limb was fully functioning, as it was before the intervention.
The result has attracted great interest from the Rosalind Franklin Association. Moreover, this work was named the best research of 2023 in the field of tissue regeneration. Israeli scientists are confident that such a breakthrough will allow the restoration of limbs for war victims and do the same with other parts of the body: be it an arm, a leg, a cheek or any part of another organ.
Orthopedics in Israel