P-51B

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'Pixie Dust' From Pig's Bladder Regrows Man's Finger
Thursday, May 01, 2008

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AP


Stephen Badylak, a senior research scientist at Purdue University, holds a piece of material harvested from a pig's bladder.
With the help of an experimental powder, a man’s severed finger has regrown to its original length in just four weeks, reports London’s Daily Mail.

Lee Spievack, of Cincinnati, who sliced almost half an inch off the top of one of his fingers, described the powder as “pixie dust,” according to the newspaper.

The “pixie dust” is actually extra-cellular matrix, bursting with collagen and is made from a dried pig’s bladder, the newspaper reports.

The dust was designed to regenerate damaged ligaments in horses, the Daily Mail said.

Collagen is known to give skin strength and elasticity. It is thought that the dust kick-starts the body's natural healing process by sending out signals that mobilize the body's own cells into repairing the damaged tissue, according to the newspaper.

Spievack said his finger even has a fingernail and fingerprint.

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“The second time I put it (the dust) on, I could already see the growth,” Spievack said. “Each day it was up further. Finally, it closed up and was a finger. It took about four weeks before it was sealed.”

Spievack injured his finger three years ago when it got caught in the propeller of a model plane. He did not want a skin graft, opting instead to try the “pixie dust.”

“There are all sorts of signals in the body,” said Dr. Stephen Badylak of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “We have 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 remodeling."

Essentially, the powder directs tissues to grow fresh instead of forming a scar.

Spievak has not lost any bone, nerves or tendon material.

BarracudaHockey

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Best to use an electric starter or stick and keep the fingers out of the prop to start with

vasek

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Like I said in the other post>

grow some extra fingers before you go fly[)]

the pope

What happens if you chop the old fella off can you get pixie dust from a porn star? Cheers the pope

P-51B

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I won't even ask what a spinning prop was doing near the "fella"


Must be some sort of Aussie thing....

Deadeye

I saw a thing on the news about this yesterday. The guys lost no bone, or the root of his fingernail. He regenerated skin and keratin only. We all do this on a daily basis, and without the help of pig piss bag.

Brokenprop

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Wouldn't take much new cartilage in bone on bone knees to make engine starting a whole lot easier.

knotnuts

Wonder if that stuff will work on a crash damaged airframe?? LOL!!!!

Tired Old Man

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Any part of that pig that can be used to cure operator stupidity?

Sport_Pilot

Actually he did loose the fignernail, it did not grow back after three years. That is this was done three years later after the finger failed to grow back on it's on. I grew back with complete fingernail, full fingerprints, and no scar. My experiance is that even a sliced finger has a scar, and my finger sliced on the tip has no fingerprint on the scar. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Though not as impressive as if a joint had regernerated. I believe that may be the next step.

Bass1

Sure there is.. A total brain swap usually does the trick but after the procedure you'll have a stupid pig to contend with!