Regenerative Medicine

A man accidentally slices off the tip of his finger, and 4 weeks later, it has regenerated back completely and you wouldn’t have known he was missing part of his finger a few weeks earlier. Bogus or fact? Amazingly, a new field of medicine has begun emerged: regenerative medicine. After the man, Lee Spievack, lost part of his finger, his brother, Alan, who is a medical scientist, sent Lee a powder and told him to cover his wound in it. Lo and behold his finger complete again in 4 weeks. The powder is an extracellular matrix which is substance made from pig bladders. The mix of proteins and connective tissues somehow “directs” cells into growing into what is necessary, such as a blood vessel, a nerve, or a muscle cell, ect. It is believed that cells have the potential to regenerate, since “heart cells are programmed to make more heart tissue, [and] your bladder cells are programmed to make more bladder cells”, and that the cells just need to be “activated” into doing so.

This is amazing news for several reasons. If you lose a limb or virtually anything, you could potentially grow it all back (hypothetically) and be perfectly fine as if nothing had happened. Also, this may make prosthetic limbs obsolete, unless prosthetics become better than actual human body parts, such the Cheetah blades, it all boils down to a personal choice and what laws are passed on these medical choices. Regenerative medicine will also help in making transplants 100% effective. Instead of waiting around for a donated organ, one could be made from the person’s own cells in a matter of weeks. This all was quite a shock to me as it opens up so many new doors of possibilities in our lives, and at the same time, it seems unreal that this is all possible. Just imagine how much longer our life spans will be because if an organ starts failing, just find a healthy batch of compatible cells and replace what you want. I guess we’ll have to wait for the future and the heated debate on ethics and morals that will erupt from this new field.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml