Rapid cell regeneration
Rapid cell regeneration | |
---|---|
Claire watches her toe grow back. | |
Originally held by: | Outright: Claire Bennet, Adam Monroe As part of another ability: Brendan Lewis |
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
Confirmed
- Claire Bennet is the first character (by episode) to demonstrate this ability and has shown the "regeneration" and "healing" aspects. (Genesis)
- Adam Monroe is the earliest character (chronologically) to demonstrate this ability and has shown the "regeneration", "healing" and "aging" aspects. (Lizards)
- Peter Petrelli has mimicked this ability. (Homecoming)
- Brendan Lewis's plant manipulation ability gives him the "regeneration" aspect of rapid cell regeneration. (Heroes Evolutions)
Future
- A future incarnation of Sylar kills Claire and obtains her ability in an alternate timeline. (Five Years Gone)
Unconfirmed
- According to Chandra's journal, a male individual potentially has the ability of "tissue regeneration". (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
Limits
Regeneration
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 a massive explosion at Whitebeard's camp that almost certainly would have severely damaged his brain. Additionally, Adam was not able to heal immediately after experiencing the explosion, 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).
Claire is now unable to feel pain, possibly because of the extent of regeneration that she has undergone. It's possible that Adam also has this attribute, although it is unclear (The Second Coming).
Peter has shown that this power has the capability to reverse memory damage caused by the Haitian. However, unlike most instances of the ability's usage, memory damage reversal requires active concentration (Four Months Ago...).
Claire has had the top of her head cut off by Sylar, and lived, because as Sylar said after examining her brain, "You can never die, and now, I guess, neither can I" (The Second Coming). Adam has told Peter that there is "no coming back" if Victoria Pratt shoots Peter's head (Truth & Consequences), although Claire is now apparently immortal, according to Sylar's assessment(The Second Coming). Angela Petrelli has also stated that beheading or catastrophic brain damage would kill someone with this ability (Powerless). However, users of this ability or even blood recipients are capable of recovering from damage caused to the brain: Claire and Peter started to regenerate once the foreign object was removed from their brain, and Noah, through blood transfusion, recovered from a gunshot in his head.
Plant manipulation
One of the aspects of Brendan Lewis's plant manipulation ability allows him to heal himself by mimicking regenerative properties of plants. (Assignment Tracker)
Lewis survived numerous rounds from several automatic rifles fired by a Company support team, and a nearby explosion of several oil drums. (The Kill Squad, Part 2, The Kill Squad, Part 3)
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.
Healing
Adam Monroe was the first to demonstrate that individuals with this ability can heal others by injecting them with their own blood. So far, five characters have been healed this way: Adam's seventh wife Diane (circa 1901), Nathan Petrelli, Noah Bennet, Maya Herrera, and Sylar.
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.
In Out of Time, Bob suggests that 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 her 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). The blood combination not only healed Maya of her gunshot wound, but also cured Sylar of the virus (Powerless).
Unlike Adam, a recipient of Adam's blood cannot age indefinitely. Adam's blood cured his wife Diane of tuberculosis, but she still died "peacefully" twenty years later. (The Ten Brides of Takezo Kensei)
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) -
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!"
"I think I died."
"I've died before. It's no big deal."
"Lazarus risen!"
- - Takezo Kensei (Kindred)
"We thought he was just able to heal. Cellular regeneration."
"Like Claire, your granddaughter."
"What we didn't know is that if your cells continually regenerate, after a while, you stop growing old."
"What's old?"
"Four hundred years."
- - Angela, Matt (Cautionary Tales)
Notes
- In Claire & the Cat, a promotional Flash animation, a much younger Claire is hit by a truck, and then able to walk away.
- Claire and Adam's ability is frequently called by different names through the episodes, graphic novels, and Heroes Evolutions. Claire's ability is commonly referred to as "healing", most notably in her tip in the assignment tracker map (Heroes Evolutions). However, Adam's own tip names this ability "rapid cell regeneration" (Heroes Evolutions). Chandra gave different names to this ability: his Genesis files similarly call it "rapid cellular regeneration" (Genesis), while in his journal he notes that a young man in Sweden potentially had "tissue regeneration" (Seven Minutes to Midnight). Additionally, the Mozaic file refers to "epithelial cell regeneration" (The Fix). Also, Lewis's profile in the assignment tracker simply calls it "regeneration" (Heroes Evolutions).
- 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)
- 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).
- Claire's healing ability does not seem to affect her pierced ears. This presumably results from the earring posts obstructing the wounds, although it's not clear whether she has to "re-pierce" her ears whenever she removes her earrings.
- Adam uses his power with some of his wives: He fakes his own drowning to get out of his marriage to Yumi, regenerates his left eye and spleen after a vicious mugging while married to Louisa, and survives being shot in the chest twice by Theresa and her lover. (The Ten Brides of Takezo Kensei)