hereward
05-03-2010, 02:23 PM
A powder nick-named "Pixie Dust" is being used to save the limbs of war heroes who have been wounded in Afghanistan.
Surgeons have already used the dust to save several soldiers so badly mutilated that they were at risk of amputation.
Made from pig bladders it has the ability to help the human body grow new tissue to replace large areas of a leg or arm destroyed by blast damage
Many British and American soldiers have lost limbs to roadside bombs in the bitter battle for control of Afghanistan.Now there is hope that limbs that would have been previously amputated can be saved.
Pig bladders contain a substance called extra cellular matrix, which is made up largely of collagen.Scientists have already used powdered pig bladders help grow replacement human bladders.
But researchers working for the American military realised the substance might also help hundreds of wounded soldiers.
Professor Steve Wolf one the US's top plastic surgeons -is carrying out a trial in Houston, Texas on victims of the Afghan fighting and has already treated several young soldiers whose limbs were so badly damaged they were unable to walk or faced amputation.
He said: 'The word has got around about how this substance from pig bladders has got this magic ability to grow new tissue. Then one day one of the patients used the phrase 'pixie dust' to describe it and the name stuck
'We don't quite know how it works which adds to its magical qualities. We think that it attracts cells in the body that have the ability to multiply and gives them a chemical signal to make new tissue.':thumbs up
More at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1270990/Pixie-Dust-pig-bladders-regrows-limbs-wounded-soldiers.html
Surgeons have already used the dust to save several soldiers so badly mutilated that they were at risk of amputation.
Made from pig bladders it has the ability to help the human body grow new tissue to replace large areas of a leg or arm destroyed by blast damage
Many British and American soldiers have lost limbs to roadside bombs in the bitter battle for control of Afghanistan.Now there is hope that limbs that would have been previously amputated can be saved.
Pig bladders contain a substance called extra cellular matrix, which is made up largely of collagen.Scientists have already used powdered pig bladders help grow replacement human bladders.
But researchers working for the American military realised the substance might also help hundreds of wounded soldiers.
Professor Steve Wolf one the US's top plastic surgeons -is carrying out a trial in Houston, Texas on victims of the Afghan fighting and has already treated several young soldiers whose limbs were so badly damaged they were unable to walk or faced amputation.
He said: 'The word has got around about how this substance from pig bladders has got this magic ability to grow new tissue. Then one day one of the patients used the phrase 'pixie dust' to describe it and the name stuck
'We don't quite know how it works which adds to its magical qualities. We think that it attracts cells in the body that have the ability to multiply and gives them a chemical signal to make new tissue.':thumbs up
More at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1270990/Pixie-Dust-pig-bladders-regrows-limbs-wounded-soldiers.html