ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Pentagon To Study Collagen Extract From Pig Bladders To Regrow Fingers
The holy grail of regenerative medicine is to enable people to grow replacements for severed or amputated fingers, limbs and spinal cords. One Pentagon-funded study that will get underway this summer is going to investigate whether a powdered extract derived from pig bladders can help wounded soldiers grow back enough of their fingers to pinch them together – which means being able to pick up an object or button a shirt. “The powder is mostly collagen and a variety of substances,” reports The Associated Press, which “forms microscopic scaffolding” and “emits chemical signals to encourage those cells to regenerate tissue.”
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