Small pieces of bone from the caudal vertebræ were also transplanted,
care being taken that each piece should contain some of the periosteum
and marrow. The bone tissue goes to pieces, but the periosteum and
marrow develop further. New bone is formed from the cells of the marrow
as well as from those of the periosteum. Finally the entire piece, both
its old and its new parts, is absorbed. Pieces of muscles were also
absorbed.
These experiments of Ribbert show that transplanted pieces of tissue do
not increase in size by growth, but undergo changes which he describes
as a return to an earlier condition of development. The abnormal
condition of their existence seems to be the cause of this change. The
transformation may be due to a change of nourishment, or to a loss of
nerve influence, or to lessened functional activity.
These results have a direct bearing on the problem of regeneration. They
show that all kinds of tissue may continue to live, and the cells
multiply in different parts of the body, but there seems to be nothing
in these cases comparable to a regeneration of the entire organ. In the
new situation the cells often assume an entirely new arrangement. After
a period of activity, a process of degeneration commences, and the piece
atrophies. Ribbert thinks that the atrophy is due to lack of
nourishment, yet it is not clear how this could be the case, since for
the first few weeks after transplantation there is an active growth, and
in some cases, as in that of the bone, there is a formation of new,
characteristic tissue. It may be that the transplanted tissues can no
longer manufacture the substances necessary for their specific growth,
and after the materials that have been brought along with them have been
used up, the growth of the piece is stopped and its subsequent
degeneration begins. It would be interesting to see if pieces
transplanted to the same kind of organ as that to which they belong will
become permanently incorporated in their new position.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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