"Pixie dust" may help injured vets regenerate lost limbs
- added May 28, 2008
- 4 responses
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- ultravphunter
- added this
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" Air Force Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro is one of the wounded vets who might one day benefit from this research. He was injured by a bomb in Afghanistan. Both his hands were badly burned. On his left hand, what was left of his fingers fused together.
"You know, in the beginning, when I first got hurt, I told them, just cut it off. So I can get some function," Del Toro said. His doctors did not cut off his injured left arm. And since that injury, advancements in burn and amputation treatment mean he may one day be able to use his fingers again.
A key to the research dedicated to regrowing fingers and other body parts is a powder, nicknamed "pixie dust" by some of the people at Brooke. It's made from tissue extracted from pigs.
The pixie dust powder itself doesn't regrow the missing tissue; it tricks the patient's body into doing that itself.
All bodies have stem cells. As we are developing in our mothers' wombs, those stem cells grow our fingers, toes, organs -- essentially, our whole body. The stem cells stop doing that around birth, but they don't go away. The researchers believe that the "pixie dust" can put those stem cells back to work growing new body parts."
"You know, in the beginning, when I first got hurt, I told them, just cut it off. So I can get some function," Del Toro said. His doctors did not cut off his injured left arm. And since that injury, advancements in burn and amputation treatment mean he may one day be able to use his fingers again.
A key to the research dedicated to regrowing fingers and other body parts is a powder, nicknamed "pixie dust" by some of the people at Brooke. It's made from tissue extracted from pigs.
The pixie dust powder itself doesn't regrow the missing tissue; it tricks the patient's body into doing that itself.
All bodies have stem cells. As we are developing in our mothers' wombs, those stem cells grow our fingers, toes, organs -- essentially, our whole body. The stem cells stop doing that around birth, but they don't go away. The researchers believe that the "pixie dust" can put those stem cells back to work growing new body parts."
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- ultravphunter
- 4 months ago
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Piggy dust. I wonder how far off we really are from seeing this. Amazing.
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I thought that 'pixie' dust had been widely discredited as junk science. I am surprised that the Pentagon are making statement about using treatment that is apparently more science fiction than fact.
The original story, about a man who re-grew a finger tip has since been found to be misleading at best, prompting the worlds press to issue retractions and clarifications on a story that rightly seemed to good to be true.
Here is a clipping on CDC about the false statements
http://current.com/items/88928149_regrown_finger_is_jun...
See the BBC and Guardian articles below
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7379745.stm -
@Pardon I had seen the story about the guy re-growing his finger tip, and I was kinda surprised that this story popped up again. Apparently, the pig stuff doesn't really do a whole lot, and it may just be a normal recovery?
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- ultravphunter
- 4 months ago
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I think thats about the gist of it ...
The research is some way from being finished and may lead to a working 'pixie' powder in the future.
From reading the Guardian article It seems that Dr Badylak the scientist quoted in much of the press stories about the re-grown finger was not very happy about the press getting hold of the story in the first place. He said "This story came to the media not through us, but rather through the patient. I would just as soon it had not gone out until we complete our pilot study."
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