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Rapid cell regeneration

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Rapid cell regeneration

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

Rapid cell regeneration (also referred to as rapid cellular regeneration, spontaneous regeneration, tissue regeneration, epithelial cell regeneration, or simply regeneration or healing) is the ability to regenerate cells at an increased rate, resulting in physical injuries healing in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Characters

Confirmed

Future

Unconfirmed

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 afterward. However, in The Second Coming, Sylar not only leaves her brain in place, he claims that he cannot kill her, nor can he be killed. 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. In Resistance, Future Claire's arm is blown off by a grenade and she re-grows it.

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). However, since having her brain examined by Sylar (The Second Coming), Claire has stated that she no longer feels pain of any kind.

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...).

Adam once claimed that he could not be killed, but he has also implied that cutting off his head would kill him (Out of Time). Adam has told Peter that there is "no coming back" if Victoria Pratt shoots Peter's head (Truth & Consequences). Angela Petrelli has also stated that beheading or catastrophic brain damage would kill someone with this ability (Powerless). However, 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) Additionally, 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.

It's revealed that it can also heal nervous system damage. Arthur Petrelli is completely paralyzed and only able to communicate telepathically as he was poisoned by Angela in an attempt to kill him. He survived although his family was told he was dead, but had permanent damage to his nervous system that left him completely paralyzed and breathing through a tube in his throat. He absorbed Adam Monroe's regeneration power, killing Adam, but healing all of the damage done to his body by the poison.

While the ability protects an individual from infections and other pathogens, it works independently from one's immune system: when Claire was shot while her ability wasn't working, her immune system was too weak to fight off infections, leading to a system wide critical condition that lead to her death. When her ability started working again, she came back to life. (The Eclipse, Part 2)

It has been proven that a bullet through the head will kill a person with this power: in order to kill Arthur who has absorbed this ability, Peter, with the help of The Haitian attempts to shoot Arthur through the head with a Company gun. Sylar stops the bullet in mid-air, but lets go when he learns the truth of his parentage. The bullet goes through Arthur's head and he is unable to regenerate and dies. This is the first character with this ability who is actually killed without being able to regenerate from a temporary death. (Our Father)

In several episodes it is said that a bullet into a certain spot in the back of the head will kill someone with this power. Claire explains that putting something in that particular shot somehow cuts off this power and kills them although if the object is removed, they will revive. Claire uses this weakness to defeat Sylar, but he somehow survives (presumably the glass she used is somehow removed), but Danko and a member of his team have both said that a bullet to that spot will kill Claire or Sylar and one refered to it as the "sweet spot."

It is possible that Sylar has more control over this ability to the point where he says that the spot to kill him is microscopic. This may be how he survived being stabbed by claire.

This power also speeds the recovery from inebriation, as Claire briefly mentioned that her liver tissue is rapidly regenerating. (Into Asylum)

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)

Anti-aging

Adam Monroe lived for centuries without aging significantly. Angela Petrelli confirms that this is an effect of his ability (Cautionary Tales). She tells Matt Parkman that after a certain amount of regeneration, the body simply stops aging. After Arthur Petrelli removed this ability from him, Adam aged rapidly, crumbling to dust within a few seconds, demonstrating that without his power continually repairing age-related damage, he would quickly die.

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 halt the aging process 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

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)


"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)


"Ah, it feels good to breathe again."

- Arthur (Dying of the Light)

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)
  • Arthur is unable to survive being shot through the head by Peter and dies despite having regeneration.
  • It would seem that rapid cellular regeneration has an Achilles's Heel: obstruction of the brain seems to prevent regeneration. This is demonstrated when Peter gets a shard of glass lodged into his cranium by Sylar at Mohinder's apartment and is not able to regenerate until Claire removes the shard of glass. (.07%)
  • Brendan Lewis's plant manipulation ability gives him the "regeneration" aspect of rapid cell regeneration. (Heroes Evolutions)
  • In a Super Bowl XLIII commercial where several Heroes suit up in football uniforms to battle against NFL stars, Claire as the cheerleader of course, uses her ability to regenerate after being crushed by the other team.



Trivia

  • The exact nature of Claire not being able to experience pain is unknown. In real life, there is a medical condition called hypoalgesia (aka hypalgesia), which notes a decreased sensitivity to painful stimuli and potential loss of the ability to distinguish between temperatures. Some people are born with a severe case of the disorder, called congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (aka CIPA, congenital analgia). The anhidrosis means that the person cannot sweat, although Claire was able to sweat while being interrogated by Meredith (One of Us, One of Them).

See Also

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Rapid cell regeneration for fan-created theories and other speculation.

Evolved Human Abilities edit
Abilities

Ability absorptionAbility replicationActivation and deactivationAdoptive muscle memoryAlchemyAlejandro's abilityAquatic breathingClairsentienceClairvoyanceCloakingCloningCyberpathyDisintegrationDream manipulationElectric manipulationElemental controlEmpathic mimicryEmpathyEnhanced hearingEnhanced memoryEnhanced strengthEnhanced strength and sensesEnhanced synesthesiaFire breathingFlightFreezingGravitational manipulationHachiro's abilityHealingHealing touchHeat generationIllusionImage projectionImpenetrable skinInduced radioactivityIntuitive aptitudeInvisibilityLie detectionLuke's abilityMagnetismMeltingMemory manipulationMemory storageMental manipulationMetal mimicryMicrowave emissionMiko's abilityMist mimicryPersuasionPhasingPlant growthPoison emissionPossessionPrecognitionPrecognitive dreamingPuppet masterPyrokinesisRapid cell regenerationSedationSeismic burstShape shiftingShatteringSound manipulationSpace-time manipulationSpontaneous combustionSuper speedSuperchargingTechnopathyTelekinesisTelepathyTerrakinesisUmbrakinesisWeather control

Evolutions Abilities

Accelerated probabilityAcidic bloodAge transferalAnimal controlBelief inductionCarbon isolation and formationConstrictionDanger sensingDavid's abilityDimension hoppingDimensional storageEmpathic manipulationEnhanced breathEnhanced teleportingExtraskeletal manipulationFireworks creationHealth optimizingInflammationLight absorptionLight manipulationNerve manipulationNon-biological duplicationPhoenix mimicryPlasmakinesisPrimal rageProbability computationRock formationShiftingTeleportationTemporal rewindWater generationWater mimicry

Graphic Novel Abilities

Ability augmentationAcid secretionAge shiftingAppearance alterationAura absorptionBliss and horrorBone spike protrusionChlorine gas exudationCrumplingDehydrationDisintegration touchElasticityElectrical absorptionEnergy absorption, transference, and redirectionFire castingForcefieldsFuture terrorist's abilityGold mimicryGranulationGreen energy blastImprintingLaser emissionLevitationLuminescenceLung adaptationMass manipulationMediumshipNerve gas emissionNeurocognitive deficitOil secretionOmnilingualismPlant manipulationSound absorptionSpider mimicryTelescopic visionWall crawling

See Also: Ability developmentAbility extensionAbility heredityAbility immunityAbility lossAbility theftBrain examinationBrain penetrationUnnamed abilitiesExamples of simultaneous ability useEye alterationList of abilitiesList of abilities with multiple usersParadoxProphecyRiftPowerExamples of rapid cell regeneration

pt:Regeneração celular instantânea