But researchers at the University of Edinburgh have managed to regenerate at least one organ in mice by tweaking a single gene. The team targeted the thymus, an organ responsible for incubating the white blood cells — called T cells — that attack infections. The thymus is crucial in immune system development, but its also one of the first organs to atrophy in otherwise healthy humans. The aging mice in this study, however, saw their atrophied thymuses regenerate, more than doubling in size and increasing production of T cells.
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