Tag Archives: amputated

New England college student has legs amputated after eating leftover noodles

February 22, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

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The strange case of a New England college student who had both his legs amputated after eating leftovers is getting renewed attention thanks to a viral video.

The 19-year-old man in question was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of Massachusetts General Hospital as a result of “shock, multiple organ failure, and rash,” according to a March 2021 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A screenshot of the YouTube video: “A student suspicious leftovers for lunch. This is what happened to his limbs”
(YouTube: Dr Bernard / Chubbyemu)

The YouTube channel “Chubbyemu,” run by Dr. Bernard Hsu, a licensed toxicologist, posted a video of the case on Feb. 16. It’s since been viewed nearly 1 million times.

The 19-year-old man, identified in the YouTube video as “JC,” had started feeling abdominal pain and nausea after eating rice, chicken, and lo mein leftovers from a restaurant meal.

GEORGIA ‘BODY’ DISCOVERED IN FOREST TURNS OUT TO BE LIFE-SIZED DOLL, SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT SAYS

He began vomiting and experienced chills, generalized weakness, chest pain, shortness of breath, neck stiffness, and blurry vision, according to the journal. A few hours before his admission, his skin developed a purplish discoloration.

An intensive care unit.
(iStock)

A friend with whom he had been staying took him to an emergency room where he was then flown by helicopter to a hospital. The friend said he had eaten the same meal and vomited but did not become progressively ill.

The man’s temperature peaked 105 degrees and his rate was at 166 beats per minute. His breathing reportedly worsened after being admitted to the hospital and was given oxygen.

FLORIDA WALMART SHOPPERS THROWS ‘HISSY FIT’ AFTER BEING CONFRONTED OVER ALLEGED SHOPLIFTING

Blood and urine tests indicated the man had Neisseria meningitidis. According to Dr. Bernard, “when bacteria are present in the blood, the entire body’s blood vessels dilate, dropping the blood pressure preventing oxygen from getting to the organs.”

The entrance to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
(Google Maps)

The man had a “prolonged hospital course” with many complications that included necrosis of the arms and legs and gangrene, leading to the amputation of parts of all 10 fingers and below his knees.

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Doctors later learned that he did not have a booster shot of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine when he was 16. Despite the amputations, doctors said he has had a “relatively good recovery.”

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Student has both legs amputated after eating pal’s leftover takeaway in fridge which caused life-threatening sepsis

February 20, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

A STUDENT was forced to have both legs amputated after eating their housemate’s leftovers from the fridge led to devastating sepsis.

The student immediately began to feel ill after eating a chicken and noodle dish which had been bought from a restaurant the previous night.

The student took his housemate’s leftovers from the fridge [DRAMATISATION]Credit: youtube/dr bernard

The patient quickly developed purple blotches as the skin rottedCredit: new england medical journal

Parts of all of their fingers had to be amputatedCredit: new england medical journal

They also lost both of their legs below the kneesCredit: New England Medical Journal

His symptoms started with a strong stomach ache and nausea before his skin turned purple and a friend took him to hospital.

He developed a severely high temperature, a pulse of 166 beats per minute, and had to be sedated, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After the sepsis spread to his limbs, he was forced to have part of all 10 fingers amputated, as well as both legs below the knees.

The student, identified only as JC in a YouTube video illustrating the case, was so ill that he had to be taken to the intensive care unit of another hospital by helicopter for further treatment.

He reportedly had no known allergies, had received his childhood vaccinations, and wasn’t a big drinker, although he went through two packs of cigarettes a week and smoked cannabis daily.

“The patient had been well until 20 hours before this admission when diffuse abdominal pain and nausea developed after he ate rice, chicken, and lo mein leftovers from a restaurant meal,” the report said.

“Five hours before this admission, purplish discoloration [sic] of the skin developed, and a friend took the patient to the emergency department of another hospital for evaluation.”

In the YouTube video explaining the case made by user ‘Dr Bernard’, he explained that the severe symptoms the patient was suffering from seemed likely to have been an aggressive bacterial infection.

He suffered kidney failure and blood clots within 24 hours of eating the food.

Blood tests from the first hospital he visited found that his blood contained the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.

Dr Bernard explained: “When bacteria is present in the blood, the entire body’s blood vessels dilate, dropping the blood pressure preventing oxygen from getting into the organs.”

As his hands and feet become cold, they are starved of oxygen

Dr BernardYouTuber

He went on: “Little clots form everywhere, as they get lodged into small blood vessels blocking blood flow.

“As his hands and feet become cold, they are starved of oxygen.”

When skin tissue is starved of blood, it begins to turn purple and rot, in a process called necrosis.

What is sepsis

Sepsis is always triggered by an infection – but is not contagious and can’t be passed from person to person
It is usually spread through conditions such as pneumonia, UTIs, and appendicitis
A common sepsis symptom is when the patient suffers a minor cut and the area around the wound becomes red, swollen, and warm to the touch
Sepsis later affects individual organs throughout the body, and in severe cases can lead to organ failure
When more than one organ stops functioning, the patient experiences cardio-circulatory failure leading to a sudden drop in blood pressure – more commonly known as septic shock
Sepsis cases in the UK are increasing, with around 123,000 cases each year in England, and an estimated 37,000 deaths
According to the UK Sepsis Trust, around 60,000 people in Britain every year suffer permanent, life-changing after effects

Although the patient’s condition stabilised, the tissue on his fingers developed gangrene, as did his legs down to his feet.

He was forced to have part of all 10 fingers amputated, as well as both legs below the knees.

The life-threatening bacteria is known to spread through saliva.
JC’s housemate had thrown up after eating some of the meal the previous night, which JC hadn’t known before he started eating them.

Doctors discovered that although JC had received his first meningococcal vaccine before middle school, he never had the booster shot four years later when he was 16, which is recommended.

Dr Bernard described the incident as a “freak accident”, although it’s not clear what caused the food to have the bacteria in it.

JC gained consciousness some 26 days later and his condition improved, although with his life changed forever.

Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection, caused when the immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage the body’s tissue and organs.

It is the primary cause of death from infection around the world – more than bowel, breast, and prostate cancer combined.

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Woman has fingers amputated after horrifying infection

February 17, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

What began as pain in the abdomen has resulted in amputation for one former health care worker.

Sadie Kemp, who worked for a COVID-19 testing and tracing unit with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, will have all 10 fingers amputated — and possibly lose her home — after an infected kidney stone caused her limbs to go into sepsis.

Doctors are unsure whether Kemp, 34, will also need her legs or toes removed, according to an update from her family on GoFundMe.

Nevertheless, the mom of two sons — Kenzie, 16, and Hendrix, 2 — is keeping spirits high.

“I’ve realized I have been given a second chance at life. The doctors have told me they are so confused that I’m still here, I shouldn’t be alive given the amount of poison I had in my blood,” she told the Mirror.

Sadie Kemp, from Peterborough in the UK, had been working with the National Health Service’s COVID-19 testing and tracing program before she became sick.

Sadie Kemp / SWNS

Kemp was rushed to a hospital in Peterborough on Christmas Day after complaining of a new sort of pain in the area near her kidneys. She decided to take a bath that evening in search of relief.

“Half an hour later I was screaming in pain on the floor saying I felt like someone was squeezing my kidney,” she said.

Kemp had been placed in a medically induced coma when she suffered a septic reaction to a kidney stone. When she awoke, more than a week later and into the new year, her hands and feet were black.

Sepsis occurs when the immune system releases an onslaught of chemicals to fight off an infection, only to cause widespread damage to the body by also attacking organs and causing clots that starve limbs of blood, eventually leading to amputation if not treated.

Five fingers have already been removed, along with five more in the coming days, according to her family.

Doctors have not yet decided whether the patient will also have to have her legs removed.

Infections leading to sepsis most often originate in the lung, urinary tract, gut or from an untreated flesh wound. The condition can be highly treatable with antibiotics if caught in the early stages, but it can be difficult to detect as early signs of sepsis are no different than many other illnesses, including fever, dizziness and low blood pressure. This is part of why it remains a leading cause of death within hospitals, often as a complication of surgery.

Kemp and her physicians managed to save her life and some limbs from the deadly complication so that only her fingers have been lost so far. However, she may soon lose her legs, too, as doctors fear the infection has spread too far already.

She and her sons had already been living in a home provided by a charity after suffering a financially devastating divorce. Now that she’s lost her job with the NHS, she fears her children are in danger.

“I’m just trying to get my head around why this happened and how this happened,” she said.

The mom of two has been left without a job or home due to her recent disability.

“It has left me without a job and a house,” she continued. “I’m not earning money for my kids. They haven’t got a roof over their heads and that makes me feel terrible. I just want to be there for them and give them some security.”

Meanwhile, her family has launched a fund-raiser to aid Kemp in her physical and financial recovery. They hope to eventually raise enough to get her bionic prostheses that would allow her to live a life as freely as technologically possible.

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Peterborough woman 34, had to have ALL her fingers amputated after kidney stone agony led to sepsis

February 17, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

A 34-year-old mother needs all of her fingers amputated and could lose her legs after being struck down with sepsis.

Sadie Kemp, from Peterborough, was building a toy kitchen with her two-year-old son on Christmas Day when she felt a sharp pain in her kidneys.

The mother-of-two was taken to hospital screaming in agony, but doctors only gave her painkillers and said she should come back if it got worse.

By the early hours of Boxing Day Ms Kemp was back, and claimed she was placed in an induced coma for two weeks.

Doctors discovered her pain was down to a kidney stone which led to an infection and then triggered sepsis — a life-threatening condition where the body attacks its own tissue.

It can also cause blood clots which cut off blood supply to limbs and leave patients needing amputations.

The NHS Test and Trace worker had her left fingers amputated this week, and is set to lose all five on her right hand when her wounds have healed. Medics have yet to decide whether her toes, feet and legs can be saved.

Describing her ordeal, Ms Kemp revealed when she came round she told her mother that she ‘should have turned off the life support’.

But her mother asked if she would rather see her children — Kenzie, 16, and Hendrix, 2 — at her bedside or at her grave.

Ms Kemp said: ‘I’ve realised I have been given a second chance at life. The doctors have told me they are so confused that I’m still here, I shouldn’t be alive given the amount of poison I had in my blood.’

Before sepsis (left) and afterwards (right). Sadie Kemp, 34, from Peterborough, felt a sudden pain in her abdomen on Christmas Day but thought it was because she was helping her son build a toy kitchen

Ms Kemp pictured with son Hendrix, two, in hospital. She says they are having to move house because she no longer qualifies for the property

Ms Kemp is pictured above before she was diagnosed with sepsis, which has led to her fingers needing to be amputated. Doctors are also considering whether her legs need to be removed

Ms Kemp is pictured above in hospital. Ms Kemp said: ‘I’ve realised I have been given a second chance at life. The doctors have told me they are so confused that I’m still here, I shouldn’t be alive given the amount of poison I had in my blood.’

Sepsis, known as the ‘silent killer’, strikes when an infection sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It can be triggered from any type of infection.

It is the leading cause of avoidable death, killing around 45,000 a year, and the Daily Mail has long campaigned for more awareness.

If caught early, the underlying infection can be controlled by antibiotics before the body goes into overdrive — ultimately leading to death within a matter of minutes.

WHAT IS SEPSIS?

Sepsis occurs when the body reacts to an infection by attacking its own organs and tissues.

About 45,000 people die from sepsis every year in the UK. Worldwide, someone dies from the condition every 3.5 seconds.

Sepsis has similar symptoms to flu, gastroenteritis and a chest infection.

These include:

Slurred speech or confusion
Extreme shivering or muscle pain
Passing no urine in a day
Severe breathlessness
It feels like you are dying
Skin mottled or discoloured

Symptoms in children are:

Fast breathing
Fits or convulsions
Mottled, bluish or pale skin
Rashes that do not fade when pressed
Lethargy
Feeling abnormally cold

Under fives may be vomiting repeatedly, not feeding or not urinating for 12 hours.

Anyone can develop sepsis but it is most common in people who have recently had surgery, have a urinary catheter or have stayed in hospital for a long time.

Other at-risk people include those with weak immune systems, chemotherapy patients, pregnant women, the elderly and the very young.

Treatment varies depending on the site of the infection but involves antibiotics, IV fluids and oxygen, if necessary.

Source: UK Sepsis Trust and NHS Choices

But the early symptoms of sepsis can be easily confused with more mild conditions, meaning it can be difficult to diagnose.

Sepsis can also lead to clots forming to block blood vessels, limiting the supply of vital nutrients and oxygen to the body’s limbs.

Starved of these resources tissue in the limbs can quickly die, leading to them needing to be amputated to avoid an infection spreading to other parts of the body.

When the back pain first struck, Ms Kemp thought it was due to bending down to help put the screws into Hendrix’s toy kitchen.

She went to have a bath because she thought it would help.

But then, she told the Mirror: ‘half an hour later I was screaming in pain on the floor saying I felt like someone was squeezing my kidney.’

Ms Kemp was placed in a two-week coma at Peterborough City Hospital.

Experts said sepsis patients are put in comas to protect vital organs from failure, and to avoid oxygen supplies becoming overstretched.

When she woke up, doctors said they may need to amputate both her arms and legs.

But Ms Kemp now says there is a chance her legs could be saved, whereas initially they were considering an amputation from below the knee.

The remainder of her hands will be sewn into a pouch in her abdomen.

This technique is used to raise the chances of remaining tissue surviving, by increasing blood flow to the area. It has previously been used for war veterans returning from Afghanistan who suffered serious injury.

Ms Kemp, who is divorced, said she has now lost her home because of sepsis.

She and her two sons were living in a house provided by a charity, but they must now move out because she is disabled.

Her job with NHS Test and Trace has also ended, Ms Kemp says, because her condition has left her unable to drive all over the country for contact tracing.

Ms Kemp said: ‘I’m just trying to get my head around why this happened and how this happened.

‘It has left me without a job and a house.

‘I’m not earning money for my kids. They haven’t got a roof over their heads and that makes me feel terrible. I just want to be there for them and give them some security

‘I was going through a divorce before this which had already cost me £10,000.

‘I’d just met my new partner and I thought I was finally starting from scratch and getting somewhere and then sepsis hit.’

Two of her friends have set up a GoFundMe page to raise £20,000 to cover childcare costs while Ms Kemp remains in hospital. It has so far got £13,000 in donations.

But the friends say they will now need to set up a second £25,000 call for donations to fund prosthetic fingers for Ms Kemp.

They wrote yesterday on the call for donations: ‘Good afternoon everyone, just wanted to thank every one so so much for their kind donations.

‘Sadie is going to need as much help financially as she can to get the home adaptions and other help she needs to live an independent life as a young mother.’

Dr Ron Daniels, an intensive care doctor and director of the UK Sepsis Trust, said Ms Kemp was ‘enormously lucky’ to have survived.

‘With sepsis that develops that quickly and cause multi-organ failure to the extent that the supply of blood to digits and limbs is compromised, then survival rates are in the order of 30 per cent,’ he told MailOnline.

He added: ‘I think questions need to be asked as to whether the hospital assessed her adequately.

‘Were any blood tests taken, what was her physiology at that time?, and so forth.’

‘I do wonder whether during the pandemic attention on Covid has compromised our ability to reliably spot other conditions.

‘We have all quite understandably focused on Covid, but when someone comes in with a condition other than Covid it might be that they might not have received quite as much attention.’

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Scientists have regrown amputated frogs’ legs. Here’s how they did it.

January 29, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

Scientists at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have regrown amputated limbs. In a study published in Science Advances, the researchers showed how they used a chemical cocktail to induce limb growth in frogs.

Currently, limb regrowth is limited to “salamanders and superheroes,” the team said in a press release. Like humans, whose bodies cover major injuries with scar tissue, adult frogs are unable to naturally regenerate limbs.

For the study, scientists began by applying a five-drug chemical cocktail infused in a silk protein gel to the African clawed frogs’ stump and covered it in a silicone dome, that they call a BioDome, to seal it. They removed the dome after 24 hours — and then waited 18 months for the limb to regrow.

An African clawed frog.

Pouzin Olivier

David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Engineering at Tufts and co-author of the study, said that “using the BioDome cap in the first 24 hours helps mimic an amniotic-like environment which, along with the right drugs, allows the rebuilding process to proceed without the interference of scar tissue.”

The five chemicals each had very specific functions, including inhibiting collagen production (which leads to scarring), reducing inflammation and sparking growth of nerves, blood vessels and muscles. The cocktail was meant to prevent the frog’s immune system from closing off the stump.

“It’s exciting to see that the drugs we selected were helping to create an almost complete limb,” said Nirosha Murugan, research affiliate at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and first author of the paper.

The regrowth of an almost fully functional leg in many of the treated frogs was a hopeful result for the scientists. The new limbs had bones, nerves and several “toes” that grew from the ends of the limbs — although the toes did not have bones. The frogs could feel when the limb was brushed with a stiff fiber, and could use it to swim through the water.

The top category (ND) was the control group; the middle category (BD) was only given the BioDome; and the bottom category (MDT) was given the BioDome and the chemical cocktail. MDT experienced the most growth by significant amounts.

Tufts University

“The fact that it required only a brief exposure to the drugs to set in motion a months-long regeneration process suggests that frogs and perhaps other animals may have dormant regenerative capabilities that can be triggered into action,” Murugan said.

“We’ll be testing how this treatment could apply to mammals next,” said corresponding author Michael Levin, director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts.

The research team hopes that the study “brought us a step closer to the goal of regenerative medicine.” They plan to test the treatment on mammals next.

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Frogs regrow amputated legs in breakthrough experiment

January 29, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

Scientists have regrown frogs’ amputated legs after giving them a “cocktail” of drugs encased in a silicon stump.

African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) are like humans in that they can’t naturally regrow lost limbs. In the new study, researchers successfully coaxed the frogs to grow replacement limbs in 18 months following a treatment that lasted just 24 hours. While there’s a massive difference between frogs and humans, the finding raises the possibility that in the future, humans could also regrow limbs.

“It’s exciting to see that the drugs we selected were helping to create an almost complete limb,” first author Nirosha Murugan, a research affiliate at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said in a statement. “The fact that it required only a brief exposure to the drugs to set in motion a months-long regeneration process suggests that frogs and perhaps other animals may have dormant regenerative capabilities that can be triggered into action.”

Related: 13 extremely strange animal feet

Animals have natural abilities to regenerate themselves. For example, human bodies close open wounds and can even use stem cells to regrow parts of the liver. Some animals, such as salamanders, can regrow whole limbs and other missing parts. The mechanisms behind limb regeneration are not fully understood, but neither humans nor adult frogs are capable of regrowing legs and arms, perhaps because those limbs are so complex.

Both humans and frogs cover an open amputation wound in scar tissue to stop further blood loss and infection. Humans have developed prosthetic replacement limbs but scientists have been unable to recover or reverse the loss of a major limb like an arm or leg.

The latest research used multiple drugs to regenerate lost limb tissue. The team surgically amputated frogs’ legs and then applied a silicone cap they called a “BioDome” to each frog’s wound. The cap released a cocktail of five drugs, including growth hormones, that perfomed different roles, such as encouraging nerves and muscles to grow. One of the drugs also prevented the frogs’ bodies from producing collagen, which normally causes wounds to scar over.

“Using the BioDome cap in the first 24 hours helps mimic an amniotic-like environment, which, along with the right drugs, allows the rebuilding process to proceed without the interference of scar tissue,” co-author David Kaplan, a professor of engineering at Tufts University, said in the statement.

Embryos and fetuses develop in an amniotic sac during pregnancy. The team was able to trigger some of the same molecular pathways in the frogs that are used when an embryo is growing and taking shape.

The new legs looked similar to normal legs with similar bone structure, except for the toes, which lacked underlying bones. The frogs were able to use their new leg to swim like a regular leg.

The findings were published Jan. 26 in the journal Science Advances.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Science

Scientists regrow frogs’ amputated limbs in massive leap for regenerative medicine

January 28, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

Scientists in the US have successfully regrown the lost legs of a group of frogs in a significant advance for regenerative medicine.

The research is an important step to one day helping people who have experienced the loss of a limb and opens the door to the potential use of a similar treatment on humans in the future.

The African clawed frog used in the research does not have the ability to naturally regenerate a limb and was treated with a five-drug cocktail over 24 hours. That brief treatment set in motion an 18-month period of regrowth that restored a functional leg.

“It’s exciting to see that the drugs we selected were helping to create an almost complete limb,” said Nirosha Murugan, research affiliate at the Allen Discovery Centre at Tufts and first author of the paper outlining the experiment.

How did it work?

The researchers used a group of 115 adult African clawed frogs. They amputated a limb of each frog, then split them up into three groups; one group received the full treatment, one group received no treatment to act as a control and one group received partial treatment.

Scientists triggered the regenerative process in the frogs by enclosing the wound for 24 hours in a silicone cap, which they call a BioDome, containing a silk protein gel loaded with the five-drug cocktail.

The drugs each had a different purpose, including tamping down inflammation and encouraging the new growth of nerve fibres, blood vessels, and muscle.

The bioreactor helped to stop the natural tendency to close off the stump, and instead encourage the regenerative process.

From just a day of treatment, many of the frogs continued to have significant regrowth over the next 18 months.

The new limbs were not perfect, but they moved and responded to stimuli, and the frogs were able to make use of it for swimming through water, moving much like a normal frog would.

What next?

For millions of patients who have lost limbs for reasons ranging from diabetes to physical trauma like war, the possibility of regaining function through natural regeneration remains out of reach.

But there are hopes that this study has brought scientists a step closer to the goal of regenerative medicine.

“We’ll be testing how this treatment could apply to mammals next,” said Michael Levin, director of the Allen Discovery Centre at Tufts.

“It’s a strategy focused on triggering dormant, inherent anatomical patterning programs, not micromanaging complex growth, since adult animals still have the information needed to make their body structures”.

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Frog regrows amputated leg after drug treatment | Medical research

January 26, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

A frog has regrown a lost leg after being treated with a cocktail of drugs in a significant advance for regenerative medicine.

The African clawed frog, which is naturally unable to regenerate its limbs, was treated with the drugs for just 24 hours and this prompted an 18-month period of regrowth of a functional leg. The demonstration raises the prospect that in the future drugs could be used to switch on similar untapped abilities for regeneration in human patients to restore tissues or organs lost to disease or injury.

“It’s exciting to see that the drugs we selected were helping to create an almost complete limb,” said Nirosha Murugan of Tufts University in Massachusetts and first author of the paper. “The fact that it required only a brief exposure to the drugs to set in motion a months-long regeneration process suggests that frogs and perhaps other animals may have dormant regenerative capabilities that can be triggered into action.”

Many creatures are able to fully regenerate at least some limbs, including salamanders, starfish, crabs and lizards. Flatworms can even be chopped into pieces, with each piece reconstructing an entire organism.

Humans have some regenerative capabilities – the liver can regrow to full size after being halved and children can regrow the tips of their fingers. However, the loss of a large, complex limb cannot be restored by any natural process in mammals. The rapid formation of scar tissue protects us from blood loss and infection, but also prevents regrowth.

In the latest research, published in the journal Science Advances, the scientists amputated a frog’s hind-leg and enclosed the wound in silicone cap containing a five-drug cocktail. The drugs each had a different purpose, including reducing inflammation and the production of collagen to stop scar tissue growing. The drugs also aimed to promote the growth of new nerve fibres, blood vessels and muscle.

The experiment was repeated in dozens of frogs and many of those treated had a dramatic regrowth of tissue, with many re-creating an almost fully functional leg, including bone tissue and even toe-like structures at the end of the limb.

The regrown limb moved, responded to touch and the frogs were able to make use of it for swimming.

In the first few days of treatment scientists observed the activation of molecular pathways that are normally used to map out limbs in the developing embryo. They believe that adult humans still retain the information needed to make body structures and that, in theory, it should be possible to tap into this dormant ability.

“Covering the open wound with a liquid environment under the [silicone cap], with the right drug cocktail, could provide the necessary first signals to set the regenerative process in motion,” said Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts. The team now plan to test the technique in mammals.

Bob Lanza, head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine, who was not involved in the research, described the advance as an “amazing achievement”.

“The study has extremely exciting ramifications for regenerative medicine,” said Lanza. “Although frogs have much greater regenerative capacity than humans, this is a very important first step. With the right combination of drugs and factors a similar approach could potentially spur regeneration and restore lost function in humans.”

Michael Schneider, a professor in cardiology at Imperial College London, said that the findings could have applications in other areas of regeneration, such as the possibility of scarless healing, after a heart attack. “The results are highly intriguing for human regenerative medicine, beyond just their implications for the limb,” he said. “As the authors acknowledge, a crucial step to be made before any human testing will be proof that this approach, possibly with further refinements, also can be applied to mammals.”

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Frogs can regrow amputated limbs with new mix of drugs

January 26, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

Such extraordinary powers elude most animals, including humans, although scientists have long sought to understand and replicate them in a quest to regenerate limbs for millions of patient amputees, including diabetics and victims of trauma.

Now, researchers in the United States said Wednesday they were able to trigger the regrowth of an amputated leg in a type of African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), in what they described as a “step closer to the goal of regenerative medicine.”

The technique used by the team of scientists, based at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and Tufts University, involved applying a mix of five drugs to the test frogs’ spike-like stump, sealed in with a small silicone dome. The cocktail was only applied for 24 hours, but after 18 months, the limb was almost fully functional. The frogs, which live in water, were able to swim and respond to touch. They also grew several toes but not the webbing between them.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.

The results were “impressive” and “exciting,” said James Monaghan, an associate professor in the department of biology at Northeastern University. He wasn’t involved in the research.

“Xenopus frogs are somewhere in between a salamander that regrows a limb nearly perfectly and a mammal that generates a scar after amputation. Adult Xenopus frogs regenerate a spike after amputation, but the spike lacks any pattern like a limb,” Monaghan explained.

“This study is significant because it shows that patterning, albeit not perfect, can be induced in a limb that typically regenerates only a spike,” Monaghan said via email.

Activating cell growth and organization

The team said that the fact that only a brief exposure to the drugs set in motion a monthslong regeneration suggested that frogs — and perhaps other animals — have dormant regenerative capabilities that can be triggered into action.

“An immediate translation of this strategy to humans is unlikely because a regenerative spike does not occur in humans as it does in Xenopus frogs. Yet, this work is exciting because it shows that endogenous regenerative processes can be enhanced by a short application of a drug cocktail,” Monaghan said.

The strategy the team used relied on triggering dormant mechanisms in the frog’s body rather than try to “micromanage its growth,” said study author Mike Levin, Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts.

“I think the way to really achieve regenerative medicine is to exploit the collective intelligence of the body’s cells. They already know how to build all of these organs. They did it during embryonic development. All that information is still there,” Levin said.

“For me, the goal is to identify triggers, very simple kinds of stimuli, that will kick-start the cells and convince them to build whatever it is that you want them to build.”

The drugs included molecules important for limb development or that have anti-inflammatory properties. Levin said it was the first cocktail they tested, and it was possible that a different combination of drugs and growth factor could have better results.

“It has the girth and the kind of features of a normal limb, some bumps that are becoming toes. It does not yet have all of the correct terminal structure. It doesn’t have the long toes, the webbing — we didn’t get that far; we may have if we let it go longer,” he said.

Regenerative medicine vs. prostethtics

The research team used the technique on more than 100 frogs, but the results were “not perfect in every case.” Levin said that the frogs were not largely identical like lab mice, which could be a factor, or there were inconsistencies in the surgery conducted to attach the dome. The next stage of the research would test the technique on mammals such as mice.

Levin and his colleagues have also used frog stem cells to create self-replicating living robots, which they call xenobots. The shared thread between the two streams of research is understanding the signals required for cells to organize into complex tissues that form a structure such as a limb, or an entire organism.

Ashley Seifert, an associate professor of biology at the University of Kentucky who studies animal regeneration but was not involved in the research, said that advancements being made with prosthetics offered more hope than limb regeneration for people with amputated limbs lost through trauma or illness like diabetes.

“Will we one day be able to regenerate a human digit or even a limb? Probably, but how long we need to wait is impossible to predict,” Seifert said.

“One step in that direction will be when regenerative biology fully embraces new regenerative models, particularly certain species of mammals. This and comparative studies will help us understand how and why regeneration fails in some contexts and succeeds in others.”

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Health

Legendary WWE wrestler Jimmy Rave, 38, reveals he had both legs amputated after suffering from MRSA

October 27, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

Legendary WWE wrestler Jimmy Rave revealed he had to have both of legs amputated after a recurring case of MRSA – only months after retiring because the staph infection forced doctors to amputate one of his arms.

Jimmy Rave, 38, tweeted a jarring photo showing the professional wrestler laying in his hospital bed with both legs and his left arm removed because he was again diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – a bacterial infection resistant to antibiotics.

‘I have a history [with] this and would cancel shows often due to this condition,’ he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

‘I’ve gone this whole time not disclosing my legs because of this embarrassment’.

Jimmy Rave, 38, revealed on Twitter on Sunday that he had both his legs amputated after contracting Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – a staph infection resistant to antibiotics and typically found in hospitals – in both legs

The former pro wrestler is best known for his work in the Ring Of Honor, a live program featuring the ‘best-in-ring action’ and new styles that ‘developed by fresh, young stars that incorporates wrestling, mixed martial arts and high-flying’

The life-threatening staph infection that is resistant to treatment: What is MRSA?

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that is resistant to several widely-used antibiotics, which makes it particularly hard to treat.

Catching the infection early could prevent it spreading and infecting others.

Approximately 30 percent of people carry the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria even in their nose, armpits, groin or buttocks without realizing it.

This can invade the body’s bloodstream and release poisonous toxins that kill up to one-fifth of infected patients.

MRSA is most commonly associated with hospitals.

As well as being highly drug resistant, current screening methods are fairly inaccurate, which allows the infection to spread as a patient moves around both within and outside hospitals.

Even when the infection is successfully treated, it doubles the average length of a patient’s hospital stay, as well as increasing healthcare costs.

The WHO recently classified MRSA as high priority on its list for the Research and Development of new drugs.

Last December, Rave announced on his Instagram that he was ending his pro-wrestling career due to the amputation of his left arm.

‘I have been very blessed for the last 21 years in professional wrestling and getting to live out my dream. Today, that dream has ended for me and I have a new reality,’ he wrote on Instagram on December 10, 2020.

‘This post Tuesday [December 8], my world came crashing down when Doctors found an infection in my left arm. I tried toughing it out but by the time I saw a doctor it was too late and they had to amputate my left arm above the elbow.’

Approximately 30 percent of people carry staph infections – even in their nose, armpits, groin or buttocks without realizing it – but MRSA afflicts about two in every 100 people, according to health officials.

Athletes and those who receive inpatient medical care or have surgery or medical devices inserted in their body are at higher risk of MRSA infection.

If left untreated, the infection can invade the body’s bloodstream and release poisonous toxins that kill up to one-fifth of infected patients.

Pro wrestler Romain Vezirian wrote: ‘I hate that this happened to you. Going from being a huge fan of yours to sharing the ring with you remains the highlight of my career. We’re all rooting for you.’

Another pro, Jeremy Vain, also wrote encouraging words to Rave: ‘Brother you have done so much to help so many people including me that had nothing to do with wrestling. Hope you know I’m praying you remember your ability to help others. You did it before, now it’s just doing it a different way. I love you man. #Changelives.’

Rave claimed he withheld the knowledge about his legs due to an ’embarrassment’ and that there were ‘untrue things’ being spread around that the pro was suffering from ‘something else.’

A few days before he posted the picture of him laying in his hospital bed, the wrestler had posted a hospital bill for more than $100,000, with room and board alone costing the retired star $52,500, and asked his fans for help with the cost.

Rave posted an astonishing $103,000 medical bill on Twitter last week asking his fans for help

Rave himself was ‘wowed’ by the shocking $103,314,77 bill for therapy, lab work, pharmacy charges, room and board, and the alleged $8.50 a day to ‘use the 20 channel TV.’

Other pro wrestlers rallied around the star, with many begging their own followers to ‘help if you can.’

‘I’m really sorry this happened to you, you never failed any of us and you are an inspiration to all of us. The amount of things I’ve stolen from your work or knowledge you’ve given that I’ve quoted to others is priceless,’ fellow pro wrestler Toby Farley wrote.

‘I don’t know where the rumors started this was due to something else, but I hadn’t been to shows for so long,’ he wrote on Twitter. ‘Pro Wrestling is all I ever loved. It sucks to think that the tribe I would have died for, would say untrue things about me.’

A GoFundMe page was set up to help Rave after his arm was amputated in 2020, with several new donations flooding in after his recent announcement.

So far the page has raised $16,115 of it’s $20,000 goal.

Rave was best known for his work with the Ring Of Honor – a live program featuring the ‘best-in-ring action’ and new styles that were ‘developed by fresh, young stars that incorporates wrestling, mixed martial arts and high-flying.’

The former pro-wrestler announced on his Instagram that he retired from the sport due to the amputation of his left arm in December 2020. He lost his arm to the same disease

Many other pro-wrestlers showed him love and support on Twitter and said he was an inspiration and that they were ‘rooting’ for him

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