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Breakthrough in tissue/cellular regeneration
Yesterday on the Oprah show, Dr. Mehmet Oz, revealed different ways to achieve extreme life extension the most fascinating of which, at least to me were the breakthroughs in tissue regeneration.
They showed a clip of him visiting and interviewing at a lab in Wake Forest University, one of the country's foremost tissue regeneration labs, where they have grown nearly two dozen different types of body parts, including muscle, bones and a working heart valve.
Dr. Oz says that to build new body parts doctors have to start with a mold. "Then, it's seeded with live cells," Dr. Oz says. "It goes into an incubator where the cells multiply and grow."
This is especially helpful for patients who are on donor waiting lists or whose organs have been destroyed by cancer. For instance, if you need a bladder transplant, Dr. Oz says doctors can build a replacement bladder using your cells in as little as eight weeks. The best part of which is, no life long anti rejection drugs since it is grown with the patients own cells.
Regenerative medicine can also be used to make everything from ears to livers.
EVEN more interesting and unbelievable was a man who's finger was re grown.
Lee Spievack, who lost the tip of his right middle finger while working on a model plane, grew his finger back with the aide of a powder made from the extracellular matrix material found in pig bladders, developed by his recently deceased, a Doctor and Harvard Professor, Dr. Alan Spievack.
"I applied that to the wound and just put a Band-Aid over it," Lee says. "I did it for 10 days … and in four weeks, I regrew the finger."
Lee says the powder keeps the wound from healing, and in turn, the body sends new cells to that area. Now, Lee's regenerated finger functions and looks just like the others. The only difference? He says the nail grows more quickly than the rest. "This [new nail] is 70 years old," Lee says. "This [regenerated nail] is only three and a half years old. It grows like a tree."
They showed a clip of him visiting and interviewing at a lab in Wake Forest University, one of the country's foremost tissue regeneration labs, where they have grown nearly two dozen different types of body parts, including muscle, bones and a working heart valve.
Dr. Oz says that to build new body parts doctors have to start with a mold. "Then, it's seeded with live cells," Dr. Oz says. "It goes into an incubator where the cells multiply and grow."
This is especially helpful for patients who are on donor waiting lists or whose organs have been destroyed by cancer. For instance, if you need a bladder transplant, Dr. Oz says doctors can build a replacement bladder using your cells in as little as eight weeks. The best part of which is, no life long anti rejection drugs since it is grown with the patients own cells.
Regenerative medicine can also be used to make everything from ears to livers.
EVEN more interesting and unbelievable was a man who's finger was re grown.
Lee Spievack, who lost the tip of his right middle finger while working on a model plane, grew his finger back with the aide of a powder made from the extracellular matrix material found in pig bladders, developed by his recently deceased, a Doctor and Harvard Professor, Dr. Alan Spievack.
"I applied that to the wound and just put a Band-Aid over it," Lee says. "I did it for 10 days … and in four weeks, I regrew the finger."
Lee says the powder keeps the wound from healing, and in turn, the body sends new cells to that area. Now, Lee's regenerated finger functions and looks just like the others. The only difference? He says the nail grows more quickly than the rest. "This [new nail] is 70 years old," Lee says. "This [regenerated nail] is only three and a half years old. It grows like a tree."
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