Finger tip regenerated by "pixie dust"

Lee Spievak had the end of his finger chopped off by the propeller of a model airplane. Today it has grown back. It's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.

Speivak's brother, Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him some powder which Lee calls pixie dust. For ten days Spievak put a little on his finger. The "pixie dust" comes from the University of Pittsburgh and is made by scraping the cells from the lining of a pig's bladder.

"The remaining tissue is then placed into acid, "cleaned" of all cells, and dried out. When the extra cellular matrix (pixie dust) is put on a wound, scientists believe it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than scar.

Future research proposals

Researchers are anxious to conduct clinical trials involving regeneration of an oesophagus and to re-grow burnt skin. A follow up article quoted other scientists who were skeptical of the claimed results. I recommend watching the video and then using the comments box below to tell us what you think.

Source article; BBC News