Extracellular Matrix helps a variety of patients regenerate tissue and limbs, possibly entire organs; military sees great possibilities.
Magic Dust Regrows Finger
Transplant surgery was not needed to regrow a centimeter's worth of fingertip for Lee Spievak, who accidentally sliced it off in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane. They sprinkled what some patients are calling magic powder on it and waited 4 weeks; the man regrew his skin, nail and bone.
The powder is made of extracellular matrix from pig bladders. It tells the body to regenerate, summoning up adult stem cells. Dr. Stephen Badylak of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine of University of Pittsburgh says the matrix mobilizes cells, some of them adult stem cells that maintain and repair injured tissue. Extracellular matrix is a mix of protein and connective tissue used to repair tendons in surgery, and launched a new field called regenerative medicine It tells the body to initiate tissue regrowth, and convinces the body that instead of responding to injury and inflammation, it needs to generate new tissue.
Limb Factory
In an interview with CBS News's Wyatt Andrews, Dr. Anthony Atala affirms he is growing body parts in his lab at Wake Forest University. Atala and his team have built, from the cell level up, 18 different types of tissue so far, including muscle tissue, whole organs and the pulsing heart valve of a sheep. And it is all growing new tissue. They make body parts that are to be implanted back into patients, and say it is simply a matter of time before they grow a heart. Emerging from an everyday ink jet printer is the heart of a mouse. Mouse heart cells go into the ink cartridge and are sprayed in a heart shaped pattern layer by layer.
In a clinical trial at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Patrick Shenot is performing a bladder transplant with an organ built with this patient's own cells, grown in a lab, and then seeded on a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold. Eight weeks later, with the scaffold infused with millions of regrown cells, it is transplanted into the patient. When the scaffold dissolves, Dr. Shenot says what's left will be a new, functioning organ.
Regeneration Possibilities Endless
A machine tested in Germany sprays a burn patient's own cells onto a burn, signaling the skin to regrow. Dr. Badylak implants a tube-shaped matrix material in a patients esophagus that have throat cancer, so the body will re-form normal esophageal tissue. Injecting adult stem cells into a patients heart may regrow arteries, and repair damage from heart attacks. Dr. Joon Sup Lee of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center calls it the Holy Grail of the field of Coronary Disease. If stem cells can regrow arteries, there is less need for surgery. Researchers are already imagining a time when regrown limbs and tissues replace prosthetics and surgery.
Wounded Soldiers Hopeful
The theory that we can regrow entire limbs is being tested on amputated soldiers. One of the biggest believers in regeneration is the United States military, which is especially interested in the matrix that regrew Lee Spievack's finger. The Army, working in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, is about to use that matrix on the amputated fingers of soldiers home from the war. Dr. Steven Wolf, at the Army Institute of Surgical Research, says the military has invested millions of dollars in regenerative research, hoping to re-grow limbs, lost muscle, and burned skin.
Organic Business
Corporate America definitely sees the business potential at hand, and investment capital has been pouring in to commercialize and mass produce custom-made body parts. The Tengion Company believes regeneration is a revolution of transplant medicine. Dr. Steven Nichtberger, Tengion's CEO, says they've already bought the license, built the factory, and are making the bladders developed at Wake Forest.
