UPMC regrows man’s fingertip

Three years ago, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center displayed the future of medicine… Three years ago, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center displayed the future of medicine – by giving a patient the middle finger.

This wasn’t just any middle finger. UPMC gave patient Lee Spievack a new powder that, when directly applied, allowed Spievack to regenerate the recently sliced-off tip of his middle finger.

It took about four weeks for the half-inch he had lost in a bloody model airplane incident to grow back.

And ever since, UPMC has been researching advances in this new technology.

The powder is what scientists at Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine call an extracellular matrix. The institute was founded in conjunction with the development of the powder.

The matrix, which is made from pig bladders, acts as a biologic scaffold, mobilizing cells to regenerate a missing body part.

“While the healing process usually produces scar tissue, which is not as strong as normal tissue, the scaffold’s growth factors encourage the development of strong, healthy tissue,” the UPMC Health Journal reported.

The report added, “As the new tissue grows across it, the scaffold is harmlessly absorbed by the body.

No matter where it is placed, the body tends to turn the scaffolding into the type of tissue needed.”

While Spievack only needed the powder to regenerate a severed fingertip, some doctors believe that this could be the first step toward developing the technology to regenerate major limbs and organs.

“It’s actually what we would consider the holy grail of our field for coronary artery disease,” Dr. Joon Sup Lee told CBS.

Lee injected one of his patients with the matrix directly into their heart with the hopes of the patient’s body developing new arteries.

UPMC doctors also placed a patch form of the matrix on another patient’s heart to regenerate tissue lost in a heart attack.

Another doctor molded the material in the shape of an esophagus to help people with throat cancer.

Like the heart patch and model esophagus, doctors can mold the powder into any shape they desire.

According the UPMC Health Journal, the technology has helped over 300,000 patients worldwide, repairing large wounds and hernias. The matrix has also helped correct urinary tract birth defects in infants.

The United States Army is working with Pitt to see if the technology could help veterans replace lost limbs or burnt skin.

“It’s hard to ignore that this guy is missing half his skin, this guy is missing his leg. Is there any way we can make that grow back?” Dr. Steven Wolf of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research rhetorically asked in an interview with CBS.

“Some of that technology exists,” he said.

While UPMC has been developing the extracellular matrix technology for years – the material was first isolated about 20 years ago – scientists have found that obtaining the “holy grail” of stem cell research will not be easy.

“As we get into more complicated and complex organ engineering, one of the things we’re learning is that these advanced biologic scaffolds need to be very specific,” Dr. Stephen Badylak, director of the Center for Preclinical Studies at McGowan, said in the UPMC Health Journal.

“It’s very satisfying to see how our work in the laboratory is benefiting patients and changing lives,” Badylak said.

“The next generation of this material, currently in development, will make it possible to regrow heart tissue, blood vessels and arteries, the esophagus and the wind pipe – and even whole organs, like the pancreas and liver,” the report said.