Regrowing a Finger and Thigh Muscle

I'm dubious.

Regeneration capability is supposingly already "programmed" in tissue agenda, it was just shaded out by the more urgent for survival demand for immediate hemostasis and/or less risk for wound infection that was only served by the formation of the blood-generated well known black substance covering the wound. So in theory, if you stop that formation (fooling the hemostasis mechanism), while somehow solving the life threatening hemorrhage problem (infection can be theoretically controlled), at least some regeneration would ocuur. But full regeneration I believe would be very technically challenging. S.M.

I do this once or twice a month

"miracle powder"?

Bad choice of adjectives,sure to raise the flag of skepticism for some.

The pig is one of the few mammals that have an internal organ capable of

regeneration.(The human liver is another).

(Some reptiles have been doing this for millions of years.)

The pig bladder is one such organ,and in the lab, it is stripped of all protein except

for the extracellular matrix.

This matrix is either dried into strips, or made into powder or a gel.

It changes the cellular instructions from "Repair" to "Rebuild".

This is a great breakthrough for medicine,and opens doors for unimagined uses.

Scientists so far do not know exactly how it works, only in a general way, but it does

work.

One patient,who lost the top joint of a finger,regrew the fingertip,complete with a

perfect nail ,and amazingly, a perfect fingerprint identical to the original.

To me,that is amazing!

That story neglected to mention a great side effect of using a pig extract to make that 'miracle powder': Every time the soldier licks his fingers now, they taste like bacon.

Hmmm? I wonder if Kermit the Frog has that problem?

Thanks, that's ANOTHER coffee-splatter stain on my monitor.

(I've either got to not read this board in the morning, or not drink coffee while reading it.)

This story, "Posted: 07/12/11 1:06 AM" in Singularity Hub leaves me wondering two things.

1. What the blazes is this Singularity Hub?

2. Is this the only source?

It seems there are two or three mostly anecdotal cases, but that's about all.

Regrown finger is 'junk science' | Science | The Guardian

Here is another link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005595/US-soldier-Isaias-Hernandez-grows-leg-pig-bladder-hormone-injection.html

The Daily Mail appears to be the source of the Hub Singularity story, but you really don't want to believe everything the Daily Mail reports anyway. I have looked in PubMed, which is a repository for the serious science related to medicine. Stephen Badylak appears in some 179 papers as author, generally as last author, or as researcher. I gather from that collection that he is pretty low in the academic pecking order. It sounds like junk science to me too.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

Yeah, if this REALLY worked as well as claimed, before the news broke officially there would be doctors making the claim that this was the new-sure-fire-method for 'male improvement.'

They'd claim a treatment similar to how they stretch bones, making a precision cut and then every day adjusting the screws so the bone ends are close enough to trigger the fill the gap' build without being so close that the two ends link up before the next turn of the screw.

And fools would buy into it, thinking that if it works for one type of bone, why won't it work for another bone?

The "Singularity Hub" is that thing in the middle of the toilet bowl that goes 'round and 'round when you flush.