Daijiworld Media Network - Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Aug 26: In a pathbreaking discovery that could transform the future of regenerative medicine and wound healing, scientists from the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, have found that cells on the verge of death can revive themselves through a highly orchestrated process, mimicking developmental growth.

Led by Dr. Santosh Chauhan, the research team has coined the term “Programmed Cell Revival” to describe this phenomenon, which accelerates tissue repair and regeneration across various organisms. Their findings have been published in the prestigious EMBO Journal.

"This is not accidental survival. What we are seeing is a conserved, well-regulated biological program where dying cells reboot essential processes — including developmental, metabolic, and immune pathways — to fully restore themselves," said Dr. Chauhan.

In experimental models, the Programmed Cell Revival process was found to accelerate skin wound healing and repair corneal burns in mice, stimulate tail regeneration in frog tadpoles, promote nerve repair in C. elegans (worms), and enhance blood stem cell production in Drosophila (fruit flies).

The discovery challenges the long-standing belief that once cells initiate the death process, it is irreversible. Instead, these findings reveal that a built-in rescue mechanism exists across species — one that can be harnessed to significantly improve recovery from injuries and tissue damage.

While the implications for regenerative medicine are vast, the researchers also issued a caveat: this same mechanism might complicate cancer treatments.

“Many cancer therapies aim to kill tumour cells. But if those cells are simply near-death and later revive — potentially with stem-like characteristics — it could make tumours more aggressive and resistant to treatment,” Dr. Chauhan warned.

Patents for this novel discovery have been filed both in India and internationally. The finding opens exciting avenues for developing new therapies for injuries, degenerative diseases, and possibly even organ regeneration.

However, the team emphasized the need for rigorous screening to ensure that revival mechanisms are not inadvertently activated in contexts like cancer or autoimmune diseases.

This study is already generating significant interest from regenerative medicine researchers and oncologists, who may need to re-evaluate existing assumptions about cell death, survival, and therapeutic efficacy.

“This discovery reshapes how we think about life, death, and healing at the cellular level,” Dr. Chauhan concluded.

As the world continues to explore biological resilience and repair, Hyderabad's CCMB has placed itself at the forefront of a scientific revolution with profound implications for human health and disease.