Human Regeneration

lolfighter

<div class="IPBDescription">This far already?!</div>I'm referring to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7354458.stm" target="_blank">this.</a> Now I knew we would get this sooner or later, what with stem cell research and all, but I figured later, rather than sooner.
Keep in mind, the fingertips are the most regenerative part of the human body next to the liver, but the ability to regenerate a lost fingertip has only been observed in small children. This man is 69 years old. I am duly impressed.
Next step, bones and organs!

Tykjen

Wow.

Thaldarin

Tesseract linked us in IRC yesterday. That is totally awesome. No longer does man have to fear his penis being removed from him when he cheats on his wife! Long live tissue regeneration!

Scythe

I am suspicious. To the extreme.

Nowhere does this article mention the risks of stimulating runaway cellular growth, otherwise known as a tumour. What would happen if one were to chuck a handful of this stuff into someone's face? Would their eye tissue start growing? Would their eyelids seal over?

Furthermore, I don't see any circumstances that would allow a worker at a bioregeneration lab to send a sample of something they were working on to their brother, on the off chance it'd work. Incredibly, utterly, unscientific. Not to mention dangerous.

Dubious, at best. A bad joke at worst.

--Scythe--

Kouji_San

<!--quoteo(post=1677304:date=May 1 2008, 01:47 PM:name=Scythe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Scythe @ May 1 2008, 01:47 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677304"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Nowhere does this article mention the risks of stimulating runaway cellular growth, otherwise known as a tumour. What would happen if one were to chuck a handful of this stuff into someone's face? Would their eye tissue start growing? Would their eyelids seal over?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WKYJDnTRkS4"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WKYJDnTRkS4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center><div align="center"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYJDnTRkS4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYJDnTRkS4</a></div>

lolfighter

The article DOES mention "worries about encouraging cancerous growths" though.

Xyth

This isn't very scientific... what would have happened if he didn't use the powder? Maybe this mans tissue is just slightly faster healing then others? He didn't regrow something of any kind of complexity, all that really happened was it grew a little ball of skin where the open wound used to be.

Thaldarin

It did say he sliced the top of his finger clean off including the bone, iirc.

CommunistWithAGun

Won't happen for a long time in the US, Helping people= Satan.

lets all pray away our problems like the parents of that wisconsin girl with diabetes. Where's your god now?

Drfuzzy

Amazing, the cells die and regrow faster i believe, which is why his nail grows super fast.

Svenpa

<!--quoteo(post=1677306:date=May 1 2008, 02:10 PM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kouji_San @ May 1 2008, 02:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677306"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WKYJDnTRkS4"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WKYJDnTRkS4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center><div align="center"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYJDnTRkS4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYJDnTRkS4</a></div><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Mmm japanese gore, one of few gore types which actually might make me feel slight ill.

lolfighter

So yeah, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim" target="_blank">debunked.</a> Not a total hoax, but blown out of proportion. Disappointing.

Xyth

<!--quoteo(post=1677542:date=May 3 2008, 04:10 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ May 3 2008, 04:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677542"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So yeah, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim" target="_blank">debunked.</a> Not a total hoax, but blown out of proportion. Disappointing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Color me unsurprised.

Scythe

<!--quoteo(post=1677564:date=May 4 2008, 11:58 AM:name=Xyth)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Xyth @ May 4 2008, 11:58 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677564"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Color me unsurprised.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Colour me vindicated.

The mechanisms of digital growth are really complex. When a foetus is growing there's a "bud" of stem cells that are always on the end of the growing limb. Somehow this bud knows what part of the arm to build onto the end next. There's a lot of hormonal and chemical signaling going on, in a nearly ideal growing environment.

Dabbling some probably inert powder on the end of a cut finger doesn't really cut the mustard.

--Scythe--

A_Boojum_Snark

Well, you don't exactly grow from one end to the other either... you start really small and just expand everywhere.

moultano

<!--quoteo(post=1677542:date=May 3 2008, 03:10 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ May 3 2008, 03:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677542"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So yeah, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim" target="_blank">debunked.</a> Not a total hoax, but blown out of proportion. Disappointing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I wouldn't say that really debunks it. Just one guy's opinion like the original article. Granted, I agree, let's wait for a peer reviewed paper before we count on it being true. In the meantime: OMG SWEET!

Insane

<a href="http://www.badscience.net/?p=669#more-669" target="_blank">Ben Goldacre</a> says it's nonsense as well.

I really think it's unlikely to see a peer reviewed paper any time soon, especially since the injury happened in 2005 and the story's been repeatedly picked up by clueless journalists since 2007.

If this were real science, it wouldn't have been a single procedure carried out on the little brother of the company owner that was then taken straight to the media. Rather, a controlled trial (or series of them) that would then have been published in a reputable medical journal, instead of being tossed into a media circus to be gobbled up by credulous journalists.