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The amazing 'pixie dust' made from pigs bladder that regrew a severed
finger in FOUR weeks
By FIONA MACRAE
Scientists are claiming an amazing breakthrough - regrowing a man's
severed finger with the aid of an experimental powder.
Four weeks after Lee Spievack sliced almost half an inch off the top
of one of his fingers, he said it had grown back to its original
length.
Four months later it looked like any other finger, complete
with "great feeling", a fingernail and fingerprint.
The secret to the astonishing regrowth is said to be the powder
described by Mr Spievack, a Cincinnati model shop salesman, as "pixie
dust".
More properly known as extra-cellular matrix, it is bursting with
collagen, the protein that gives skin its strength and elasticity,
and is made from dried pig's bladder.
It was developed to regenerate damaged ligaments in horses. "The
second time I put it on I could already see growth," said Mr
Spievack, 69.
"Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger.
It took about four weeks before it was sealed."
Mr Spievack damaged his finger in the propeller of a model plane
three years ago. He turned down a skin graft in favour of the "pixie
dust" recommended by his brother, a former surgeon and the founder of
the firm that makes the powder.
While it is not entirely clear how the powder works, its developers
believe it kick-starts the body's natural healing process by sending
out signals that mobilise the body's own cells into repairing the
damaged tissue.
Dr Stephen Badylak, of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative
Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, told the BBC: "There are
all sorts of signals in the body.
"We have got signals that are good for forming scar tissue and others
that are good for regenerating tissues.
"One way to think about these matrices is that we've taken out many
of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals which
were always there for constructive remodelling.
In other words, the powder directs tissues to grow afresh rather than
form scars.
"We're not smart enough to figure out how to regrow a finger," said
Dr Badylak.
"Maybe what we can do is bring all of the pieces of the puzzle to the
right place and then let Mother Nature take its course. There's a lot
more that we don't know than we do know."
But Professor Stephen Kaye, a consultant plastic and hand surgeon at
Leeds University, poured cold water on Dr Badylak's claims.
Asked if he was surprised that Mr Spievack's finger "grew back" he
said: "Not in the slightest."
Prof Kaye added: "The pictures I've seen on the web show a wound I
would have expected to heal and regenerate in any case.
"The end of the finger is extremely good at regeneration. The
pictures we've seen on the web show no evidence of loss of bone,
nerve or tendon material, but regeneration and repair of skin - which
is exactly what the fingertip does."
He added that the photographs appeared to portray a "very commonplace
transverse amputation of the very end of the fingertip" and not
someone who had lost the last phalanx of his finger, as Dr Badylak
claimed.
Prof Kaye said extra-cellular matrix was an acknowldged way of
promoting wound healing, but pointed out that there was a "big
difference" between healing and regeneration.
"I don't want people to have false hopes," he told the Radio 4's The
World Tonight news programme.
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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