Rapid cell regeneration

Rapid cell regeneration
Claire watches her toe grow back.
Originally held by:	Claire Bennet, Adam Monroe
Absorbed by:	Peter Petrelli, Sylar (possible future)
Ability to:	Rapidly regenerate cells
Examples of rapid cell regeneration

Rapid cell regeneration is the ability to regenerate cells at an increased rate, resulting in physical injuries healing in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Characters

• Claire Bennet is the first character to demonstrate this ability.
• Adam Monroe is the first character (chronologically) to demonstrate this ability. (Lizards)
• Peter Petrelli mimicked this power (Homecoming); it is the first he is able to access outside the original "owner's" presence. (Distractions)
• A future incarnation of Sylar kills Claire and obtains her ability in an alternate timeline. (Five Years Gone)

Limits

This ability does not move displaced parts of the body back into the correct location. After filming the videotape, Claire had to manually re-insert her displaced ribs before the flesh on her ribcage would heal (Genesis), and Peter Petrelli had to manually rotate his broken foot to the correct orientation before it would heal while he was mimicking Claire's power. (Homecoming)

Regeneration also does not work correctly if a foreign object obstructs the wound. This is especially true of foreign objects lodged in the brain. After Brody "killed" Claire, she did not begin to regenerate until the coroner removed the tree branch lodged in her brain. Peter experienced a similar situation with a piece of glass in the back of his head (.07%). This limitation is presumably related to the importance of the brain in the nature of evolved humans, as theorized by Chandra Suresh (One Giant Leap). A more graphic example of this is future Claire's presumed death at the hands of Sylar (Five Years Gone); when Sylar removes her brain after slicing her head open, she presumably dies afterwards. Despite this limitation, Claire's power can expel small objects (such as a bullet) lodged in her body as long as they are not disrupting her brain functions (Company Man). However, Adam Monroe was able to completely heal from an explosion that almost certainly would have severely damaged his brain. Additionally, Adam was not able to heal immediately after experiencing the massive explosion at Whitebeard's camp, as evidenced by his charred body in the ruins of the tents. (Out of Time)

Typically, Claire's blood does not return to its place in her body when an associated wound heals, although it can if the wound is small and her blood has not spread far from it (the only example being when her brother stapled her hand). She is consistently covered with blood following a serious injury; Mr. Muggles even ingested some.

As demonstrated for the first time in Lizards, Claire is able to regrow body parts that have been removed. She experimented with this for the first time by cutting off her little toe with a pair of scissors, then watching it grow back with much surprise. The limits of her ability to regrow amputated body parts are not known.

Claire certainly feels her injuries--she cried out from having a staple put into her hand and winced in pain at other times--but the pain does not incapacitate her in the way it would an ordinary person. She has stated that the pain she feels from injuries diminishes very rapidly. (Kindred)

Peter has shown that this power can reverse memory damage caused by the Haitian. (Four Months Ago...)

Aging

Adam Monroe seems to have lived for centuries without aging significantly. Angela Petrelli confirms that this is an effect of his ability (Cautionary Tales). Angela Petrelli reveals to Matt Parkman that after a certain amount of regeneration, the body simply stops aging.

Adam has also claimed that he is not able to be killed, but he has also suggested that he could be killed if someone were to cut off his head. (Out of Time) This is confirmed by both Victoria Pratt, who would have succeeded in killing Adam if not for Peter's interference, and Adam himself, who tells Peter that he won't come back if his head is blown off. (Truth & Consequences)

Healing

Adam Monroe was the first to demonstrate that those with this ability can heal others by injecting them with his/her own blood. So far, the only characters to have been healed this way are Nathan Petrelli and Noah Bennet.

Adam injected a small amount of his blood into Nathan's intravenous drip, causing Nathan to immediately start to heal from his radiation burns (Four Months Ago...). Adam did not show any worry about the possible adverse effects of mixing blood types: whether this is an effect of his ability or he merely has the "universal donor" blood type (O-) is not clear.

In Out of Time, Bob suggests Claire's blood could be used to make a new cure for the Shanti virus. Bob informs Claire that her blood could help a lot of people, and proceeds to take some of her blood. Later, Noah Bennet is resurrected using blood after being shot and killed by Mohinder (Cautionary Tales).

Mohinder Suresh is able to combine Claire's blood with the antibodies from his own to make a cure for the fortified Shanti Virus that Niki contracted. (Truth & Consequences)

Selected Examples

• 
  Claire awakens on the autopsy table after a tree branch was removed from her brain, effectively having regenerated back to life.
  (One Giant Leap)
• 
  Sylar's best efforts are no match for Peter.
  (Parasite)
• 
  Claire heals a gunshot wound, a small radiation burn on her neck, and massive radiation burns.
  (Company Man, Family Man)
• 
  Takezo Kensei comes back to life after being pierced with arrows.
  (Lizards)
• 
  Claire cuts off her toe, which then grows back, much to Claire's surprise.
  (Lizards)
• 
  Peter's body regurgitates a bullet, then heals itself.
  (Kindred)
• 
  Adam injects his blood into Nathan, healing him of radiation burns.
  (Four Months Ago...)
• 
  Noah Bennet regenerates an eye, after being transfused following a bullet wound.
  (Cautionary Tales)

Memorable Quotes

"I have busted, like, every bone in my body, stabbed myself in the chest, I've shoved a two-foot steel rod through my neck, and I don't have a scratch on me!"

- Claire (Genesis)

"I think I died."

"I've died before. It's no big deal."

- Peter, Claire (Fallout)

"Lazarus risen!"

- Takezo Kensei (Kindred)

"Just a small amount of blood could help to heal him. End his pain. Even after everything you put him through."

- Adam Monroe (to Peter) (Four Months Ago...)

Notes

• In Claire & the Cat, a promotional Flash animation, a much younger Claire is hit by a truck, and then able to walk away.
• The Genesis files contain a folder labeled "Rapid Cellular Regeneration". (Genesis)
• Claire and her mother mention an incident at the dog park in which a "big dog was gonna chew [Claire's] hand off." Claire says that "it looked worse than it was." (Better Halves)
• According to Chandra's journal, a young Swedish man "potentially" had this this power. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• After healing, Claire coughs up the bullet that Matt shoots at her. This is unusual, in that she usually has to remove the foreign body before healing (Company Man). However, after Peter Petrelli is shot in the chest with two bullets, one of the bullets is shown to be regurgitated out of the wound before the wound itself heals (Kindred).

Evolved Human Abilities edit
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See Also: Extension:DynamicPageList3 (DPL3), version 3.6.1: Error: MediaWiki\Extension\DynamicPageList3\Query::buildAndSelect: The DynamicPageList3 extension (version 3.6.1) produced a SQL statement which led to a Database error.<br/>The reason may be an internal error of DynamicPageList3 or an error that you made; especially when using parameters like 'categoryregexp' or 'titleregexp'. Usage of non-greedy <code>*?</code> matching patterns are not supported.<br/>The error message was:<br/><code></code> • Examples of rapid cell regeneration