KEY POINTS:
Imagine if your hand or another limb was chopped off and you could just grow another.
Sound far-fetched? Well, Invermay scientists don't think so. And they believe their research into how deer grow a new set of antlers each year may one day provide the answer.
"There is
no other mammal which loses an organ and it regenerates again," senior AgResearch scientist at Invermay Dr Stephen Haines said yesterday.
In two months in spring, each stag can grow between 8kg and 10kg of velvet antler, a process driven by stem cells, the body's building blocks and from which a whole range of tissues develop, Dr Haines said.
"By understanding why antler regenerates, we might be able to influence human tissues.
"Instead of forming a scar, it could continue to grow another limb from a stump."
Dr Haines said regenerating limbs was "on the far horizon" and, at present, not a research priority, but understanding the antler shedding process could help scientists understand more about human tissue science and help with treatment following injury or disease.
"Who knows? We may never get there, but by understanding the biology we should come up with something relevant to human medicine."
Deer velvet antler either falls off or is cut off by farmers, leaving a wound over which a scab forms. The antler starts growing again in the spring.
The antler-shedding process has other more immediate human and farming application.
AgResearch has patented a wound healing product utilising stem cells from deer velvet and is researching whether the technology could help lambs grow muscle more quickly.
Dr Haines said the key was having easy access to stem cells from deer antler, as there were ethical issues about using stem cells from humans for research.
Deer velvet antler contains a range of tissues including blood vessels, and scientists have adapted this characteristic in their wound-healing product to encourage blood to heal a wound site.
Dr Haines said the company was talking to an international company about marketing and distributing the product.
The same fast stem cell making process could help sheep farmers get lambs to killable weights by growing muscle more quickly, research which could be applicable in five years.
"If we can understand what is causing that, we might be able to understand how we can make cells in sheep grow into muscle quicker."
STAGS' VELVET
* Stags shed their antlers every spring and regrow them.
* Research into this shedding process may help scientists understand more about human tissue science.
* A wound-healing product utilising stem cells from deer velvet has already been patented.