Man Regrows Finger

[RiceGuy]

This is an amazing story:

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The first thing I thought of was regrowing villi, but there are all sorts of possibilities, such as other internal organs, eyes, inner ears, entire limbs, the spinal cord, hair, skin (as in burn victims), etc. The list seems nearly endless.

[JenPen]

This is an amazing story:

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The first thing I thought of was regrowing villi, but there are all sorts of possibilities, such as other internal organs, eyes, inner ears, entire limbs, the spinal cord, hair, skin (as in burn victims), etc. The list seems nearly endless.

Wow, that was something else! Thanks for posting the link 8^)

Jennifer

[ravenwoodglass]

Fascinating. I do wish they had shown a full shot of the finger after the accident from the front. It does seem that he removed the fleshy tip and not any of the bone. As someone who has also sliced off the tip of a finger and had it grow back by itself I would have liked to see better the full extent of the injury rather than just a top down shot.

I have seen some of the stuff where they use a 'scaffold' to grow things like an ear but I have never heard of anything like this. It would be interesting to know if it works with the woman who has esophageal cancer. I don't think in most cases it would benefit the villi though, those will regrow themselves pretty quickly in most cases. It might be a hope for those of us who have true refractory sprue though. Thanks for posting.

[2kids4me]

Intestinal cells have a turnover rate of every 3 days - which means new cells constantly replenish. Villi do re-grow in celiacs once on gluten free diet. there are exceptions in people who have long standing damage - and some patchy areas may never regrow because of scar tissue [well, that's my theory].

Tips of fingers will regrow as long as the bone is not damaged. Think of when you get a surgery or a bad cut - the scar tissue is different than surrounding undamaged skin. Finger tips that regrow often have no nerve supply - the tissue is there but it is numb. So seeing that this "matrix" cell dust (pixie dust as they call it) was able to regrow the nerve supply too - was amazing. Definitely possibilities for spinal cord repair / helping burn victims etc.

Sandy