Healing agent?

[Tavis]

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong section, first time visiting and all.

Anyways, I recall reading about something in the news within the past year, about some sort of protein, compound, enzyme, or what have you, that when topically applied to cuts, would heal the cuts around twice as fast. Also, it would minimize scar tissue on wounds that other wise would have had massive scar tissue.

 

I also seem to remember it being derived from stem cells somehow. It figures that I can't remember the name. I do think it was a whole mess of letters and numbers though. If anyone has ANY idea what I'm talking about, some more information or a link would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Rote Learner]

You are right about the stem cell idea. It is derived from a pig bladder and actually grew back this guys nail and skin. It is being tested by the military right now because our wounded soldiers are the most important right now. They even are tested it in heart surgery and hope to one day have it regrow bone or even entire limbs. It is basically adult stem cells that trick the body into regrowing the cells, rather than healing it as a cut or a broken bone.

 

Here is the video about it:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml

 

 

And an article:

 

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/24/pig-bladder-powder-r.html

 

Sorry for the basic explanation, but the details haven't been released because they are fine-tuning it.

[Taq_is_hot]

Aha! The future of stem cells! I like it!

[ecoli]

This has already been posted and debunked...

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32620

 

Be wary of major news media outlets making wild claims about science.

[lucaspa]

Guys, sorry, but this isn't "stem cells" per se. Badylak has been doing research for 20 years on a substance he calls "small intestine submucosa" (SIS for short) to regenerate tissue. He basically takes the cells out of pig small intestine, leaving the extracellular matrix. Actually, it's basicall sausage casing. Badylak has had some success with this in animals, but it has never gone anywhere.

 

Now he has a new matrix -- urinary bladder matrix (UBM) -- that he is working with. The preparation is given here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18201760?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

 

I see one study using UBM for cardiac repair: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12716647?ordinalpos=11&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

 

The model is weird (a circular surgical defect in the myocardium rather than the more common ischemic injury by tying off the coronary artery). He got 70% of the contractile force back. However, I think that is about what you would get with scar tissue bridging the defect.

 

Be careful of the hype.

 

You can do a more careful search of Bradylak's work by going to PubMed and entering "badylak sf" as your search term.