'We can rebuild him....'

Surgeons are using gene technology

Scientists are developing new ways to treat previously incurable conditions by tapping into the body's remarkable ability to renew itself.

Until recently, it was thought impossible to re-grow human tissue but, as the BBC television programme Superhuman reports, many doctors now think it can be done - and some are making dramatic breakthroughs.

The key is to identify the genes involved in self-repair and stimulate them to regenerate new cells, tissues and even organs.

Roger Darke and the Reverend Charles Wilson were two of the first people to undergo this new type of treatment.

Both suffer from angina, a chest pain caused by a blocking of the blood vessels feeding food and oxygen to the heart.

The Reverend Charles Wilson is recovering well

The two men volunteered to test a new technique designed to encourage their bodies to grow new, clean arteries to replace the old, blocked ones.

Their doctors had recently identified the gene that makes blood vessels grow and discovered that it is busiest in the womb, when it builds arteries and veins, but then becomes less active.

Injection

The pioneering treatment involved injecting large quantities of the gene directly into the heart to encourage the growth of enough new blood vessels to reverse the damage.

Remarkably, the genes do not need to be precisely targeted.

The body seems to know exactly where the heart needs new arteries.

Charles Wilson is now recovering well.

He said: "Now, 90 days out, I rarely have any angina. Before the operation I could not walk from my house to car without chest pain

"Now I am exercising again. To be able to walk a mile and quarter and not have any chest pain - that is tremendous for me."

Sadly, however, Roger Darke died on the morning after the operation.

Although there is no proof that Roger died as a result of his treatment, the trial has been halted in order to find out what went wrong.

Skin grafts

It is still early days for this type of research but there is one area in which the creation of living tissue is already a great success.

Roger Darke died soon after surgery

People who need skin grafts, such as burns victims, usually get a graft from either another area of their own body or from a corpse.

But now new skin can be grown by the metre from the foreskins of new-born babies.

The skin is supple and, because it's from new-borns, its cells multiply quickly and easily.

In fact, a single foreskin can be grown into enough skin to cover six football pitches.

Superhuman - Self Repair is broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 29 October at 2015GMT.