The concept of tissue regeneration: Epistemological and historical enquiry from early ideas on the regeneration of bone to the microscopic observations of the regeneration of peripheral nerves

Abstract

This paper examines the epistemological history of physiological tissue regeneration theories from Antiquity to the present time focusing on early clinical observations, microscopic investigations of the 19th C. and molecular aspects of the regeneration of peripheral nerves. We aim to show underlying theoretical implications at stake over centuries, with an extreme diversity of local contexts, while slowly emerging ideas were progressively built in the framework of cell theory and that of molecular biology. The overall epistemological lesson is that this long history is far from finished and requires novel experiments and perspectives, as well as the careful inspection of its rich past, as a true scientific tradition, in order to better understand what is nervous regeneration and how we can use it in medicine.