Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All the Time

[TheBORG] writes "There are two stories on Yahoo! News about regrowing lost body parts. One is about regrowing lost fingers & limbs and the other one is about regrowing teeth. The story about regrowing lost fingers and limbs talks about the experimental use of powdered pig bladder to regrow fingers and eventually lost limbs for soldiers and others in need from information that Pentagon-funded scientists hopefully learn from studying the salamander. The story about regrowing teeth talks about how Japanese scientists used primitive cells and injected them into a framework of collagen. Once grown to a certain point, scientists implanted the growths into mice where the teeth developed normally."

Comments

I'm an idiot!

[BobPaul]

Once grown to a certain point, scientists implanted the growths into mice where the teeth developed normally.

On reading this I thought: "Why don't they just implant the teeth directly into people? Mice have tiny heads, and it would save a step!" D'OH!

Re:I'm an idiot!

[Barryke]

i knew that

Pig parts?

[Apocalypse111]

I wonder how the Muslim and Jewish communities would react to this technology, as it involves materials taken from an animal that those religions traditionally view as "unclean". Would they reject it on those grounds?

Re:Pig parts?

[jfengel]

At least for Jews, that problem has been faced and solved. Pig heart valves are now used regularly, and that's just fine for Orthodox Jews. The problem is eating pigs, but any other use of pig parts is just fine.

The Muslims, however, are still debating it, as far as I can tell.

Misleading headline

[gardyloo]

Phew! Upon first reading that headline, I got an image of disembodied bits, growing ever larger, shuffling closer inexorably. I was about ready to look for a shotgun, or at least a shovel.

Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[Stormwatch]

Can I have my foreskin back now, please?

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[Anonymous Coward]

That aint gonna make it any bigger.

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[couchslug]

"Sorry, your parents told me to keep the tip".

Thanks, I'll be here all night.

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[UnrefinedLayman]

Hi, I'd like to cut off part of your dick. May I? What do you mean, no? How do you know it isn't better until you've lived both ways? I promise I will only cut off an insignificant part of your dick.

We're talking about involuntary and medically unnecessary genital mutilation of infants. We're talking about cutting off part of your dick. That bears repeating: We're talking about taking a knife to your dick and cutting off part of your dick. The fact that you're not on your way to your nearest Rabbi right now to have part of your dick cut off entirely invalidates and undermines your position.

Not only that, but you say You can't complain without having experienced it both ways. Oh, and if you are one of the few men that have lived both ways, your opinion doesn't matter. QED.

What amazes me is people who say "What's the big deal?" If it's no big deal for it to happen (which requires time and effort and has no logical or medical basis) then it's certainly less of a deal not to do it at all (which requires neither time nor effort, and doing nothing does not require a reason), therefore the logical choice is not to do it. When someone is old enough to make a conscious decision to have their genitals mutilated they can feel free (can't you hear the stampede of men rushing to have it done?).

Just remember, your lack of knowledge and understanding of the issue of male genital mutilation does not make your position the right one. You clearly demonstrate your dearth of insight (bifurcation, believing the issue is only about the possession or not of a foreskin, logical self-contradiction), so before you so quickly dismiss and insult people passionate about the topic perhaps you should try learning a thing or two first.

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, some news for you: chicks don't like it either, no matter what your wife/girlfriend tells you.

Thank you for that insight into the personal tastes of three billion people you'll never meet.

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[Anonymous Coward]

I can tell you with certainty that I and every man I know would have it done had they not gotten it done right after birth. Why would I want to see something attached to my body that looks like a shriveled up turd every day? Also, some news for you: chicks don't like it either, no matter what your wife/girlfriend tells you. You're just jealous because your mom didn't spring for the extra features.

Now that's an insane argument. No matter what your wife/girlfriend tells you, they don't like a natural penis?
I'm from Europe and I have never even seen a circumsized dick in my life (or heard of anyone who has it). I guess there's not enough Jews around here anymore.
And I must say you have a problem with yourself if you think a natural penis looks like a "shriveled up turd".
Now I don't give a shit if you or your parents keep the Jewish tradition of cutting of parts of the penis, but don't assume that the rest of the world would also like to do it.
Personally I think it's seems like a weird tradition, but looking around the globe you will find tons of pointless illogical traditions being upheld because a grandfather did it, so whatever floats your boat I guess.
Just don't assume that the rest of the world looks upon a particular tradition of your culture as the norm or ideal.

Re:Question to a doctor I'd like to kill

[Tyler Durden]

Please read up on the subject before dismissing the foreskin as an "insignificant fold of skin". Ignorance is forgivable. But arrogantly displaying your ignorance as some kind of insight is not.

You don't necessarily have to experience both cut and uncut do know which is better. Instead we can easily deduce which is better by the fact that the foreskin contains about 10,000 nerve endings. Nerve endings for sensation. (This is why the first push for circumcision in the US was to prevent excessive masturbation). So if you, like me, have been circumcised that means we have never felt sex as it could have been, and never will. And because of ignorance spread by people like yourself, we were never given a choice in the matter either.

Hmmmmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All the Time

Should I be concerned that this story was submitted by someone named [TheBORG]?

Not as strange as you'd think.

[cfulmer]

Since at least the civil war, if patients have portions of their extremities cut off, doctors have been sewing the severed tip back into good flesh, so the extremity can regrow. An acquaintance lost about 1/2 an inch off the tip of his finger. The surgeon cut a slit in the palm of his hand, stuck the finger in there and sewed it back up. A few months later, presto! new finger.

Re:Not as strange as you'd think.

[flaming error]

Not so strange, you say? I'm not sure which I'd prefer: a severed fingertip growing out of my palm, or some alien organism based on powdered pig bladder growing out my fingertip.

Re:Not as strange as you'd think.

[BobPaul]

That's a little bit different. In your story they have the original body part that was severed and were just keeping it alive. In the article they are talking about if, say, a finger were completely lost. It was cut/blown off and couldn't be retrieved. Making a new finger requires bone, muscle, tendon, cartilage for joints, nerves, etc. Creating all of these from scratch is something we've wanted to be able to do for years, and it looks like we're making steady progress towards that end

Pork Belly Futures?

[GIL_Dude]

Anyone? Darn - that was the first thing I thought of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_belly I guess the price will be going up...

Re: Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All

[Anonymous Coward]

Fun fact. Everything in the future is getting closer all the time.

Obligatory Monty Python Ref

[hobo sapiens]

the experimental use of powdered pig bladder to regrow fingers and eventually lost limbs for soldiers and others in need from

BEDEVERE: And that, my lord, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped.

ARTHUR: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

BEDEVERE: OF course, my Liege ...

Further research areas

[imbaczek]

Further research, as pointed by scientists, should include regrowing brains in politicians. There are doubts, however, whether this is at all possible, as some researchers say indicated subjects don't have any brain to start with.

Re:Further research areas

[kanweg]

Sorry, twice the brain size makes them just twice as stupid. In that, they don't differ from regular people from, say, [state suppressed].

Bert

I have a friend who may do research in this area..

[FooAtWFU]

Wake Forest University's got an Institute for Regenerative Medicine in their medical school. I have a friend (just a pre-med undergraduate) who might get to do some research there this summer and is really excited about the possibility. It's neat stuff.

John Wayne Bobbitt this is for you

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I am sure Mr John Wayne Bobbitt will welcome this news and appreciate it greatly. :-)

Hitchhikers Guide reference

[edwardpickman]

"I grew that one for you baby."

Sorry, but I can't resist...

[skoaldipper]

Spievack talking about the regrowth of his finger said, "it's a little hard, as if calloused, and there's a slight scar on the end. The nail continues to grow at twice the speed of his other nails."

John Bobitt, you reading this?

Ambiguous title

[StrawberryFrog]

I read that as "Regrowing, Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All the Time" which is frankly nightmarish. I need more sleep. It should have been "Regrowing Lost Body Parts is Getting Closer All the Time"

New way to do sex change

[WindBourne]

I wonder if this will be used in the long haul for sex change operations/transgender. May be easier and cheaper to biologically force the change.

I heard....

[Dues]

I heard if you cut off an extremity it will grow back even bigger.... ...Don't believe it.

Could it be?

[Anonymous Coward]

Replacement limbs finally within arms reach?

Because it's not analogous.

[Grendel Drago]

Please read this list. Just because both procedures are labeled "circumcision" does not make them equivalent. The equivalent of "female circumcision" is, at the very least, removal of the entire penis.

Re:Because it's not analogous.

[__aaonkh7048]

i am growing weary of setting this record straight.

every time i hear someone say that FGM is 'worse' than MGM, i get sick to my stomach. NO baby deserves to be cut. NO child deserves to be cut. NO adult deserves to feel as if he/she is "less than" because they were NOT cut. NO one should be shamed or guilted into cutting themselves or their children.

there are forms of FGM that are analogous to MGM. there are forms of MGM that are as atrocious as the worst forms of FGM. and there are worse things people do to kids too.

i was clitoridectomized, hoodectomized, and nymphectomized (lost clitoris, hood and labia) to MDs in KANSAS in the 1950s. and i am a WASP female. i've written an entire book about it. "the rape of innocence" -- at amazon.

and i work with people to help them clear their fear, their trauma. so i personally don't think there's much point in debating the pros and cons and who wins the prize for the 'worst' genital cutting. i think it's all atrocious, barbaric, SO middle ages or even before, and needs to be STOPPED immediately. what on earth is a modern country doing, cutting babies genitals? i am beginning to think the 'kink' factor is far greater than the 'health' claims. who on earth is so obsessed with babies' genitals that they insist on cutting them? this is very, very sick stuff.

"circumcision" or whateve you care to call it, tortures and traumatizes everyone connected with it. even the practitioners have to steel their heats, close their hearts, so they can do it. nurses hate it. doctors hate it. parents have to go into denial. children protest, even tho adults will swear that the baby LIKED it... just like rapists, child abusers swear that the children they abuse liked it. it's childhood sexual abuse to the max.

everyone deserves to have a whole, healthy, functional body... males and females. everyone deserves to be safe and protected, loved and respected... males and females.

get with the program. protect babies. protect children. don't let anyone cut them. they don't deserve to be treated like that.

thank you for reading this rant. :)

Re:Because it's not analogous.

[vidarh]

every girl I've been with has stated an aesthetic preference for it (and I happen to agree)

Surprise. You live in a culture where circumcision is common, presumably. Every girl I've been that has expressed a preference thought that circumcised dicks looks weird. People at the very least get used to what is common in their culture, and often prefer that which they see as "normal".

it's easier to keep clean,

Whenever I hear this argument, it makes me want to stay ten feet away from whomever makes it, as that person clearly have problems understanding how water and soap works, and the entire concept of "washing"... Hint: It pulls back. One swift motion, and any hygiene "issues" are exactly the same as if it was circumcised. Do you also not wash behind your ears because it's hard to get to? Or clean your ass? Eww..

and apparently I have a greatly reduced risk of contracting AIDS and one or two other STIs due to reduced risk of membrane abrasion. Score!

And this time I worry on behalf of your sexual partners. The reduction in risk is so small that it makes no practical difference if you use a condom. If you're irresponsible enough to not use a condom... well then you deserve everything you'll likely get.

Re:Because it's not analogous.

[__aaonkh7048]

honey, let's face it -- neither of us has a clue what a healthy, whole, functioning body is because we have both been altered. i had no idea for 50 years that i was not a normal, natural woman. now i wonder what it would have been like, to have had a natural body. i suspect i might have bonded with a man and have had a family and children.

if you ever had a lover who was circumcised, you might notice a big difference between her and other women. men used to tell me, "you're DIFFERENT from other women." i had no idea what they were talking about until i found out about my circumcision.

but i sure could tell the difference between men who had been cut and men who had intact bodies. the cut style didn't work for me at all; the intact did. i didn't understand then what the difference was ... now i do. there is a huge functional difference between the denuded glans and the natural penis with foreskin... a significant difference. on the doctorsopposingcircumcision.org website is a very eloquent explanation in video form under 'continuing education'.

so your girlfriends might say they prefer the cut style, but have they tried the uncut style? I think foreskin is the reason why europeans have a reputation for being great lovers. american and european porn, i understand, illustrates the difference. the men move very differently.

the cut penis only has sensors for pressure, heat and friction. glans sensitivity has been measured to be equivalent to the heel of the foot. the intact foreskin, on the other hand, contains tens of thousands of nerve endings that are similar to the nerve endings in the tips of the fingers and the lips. the cut man needs to push down to stimulate the foreskin remnant, the frenulum... the woman needs him to push up toward the clitoris. he needs to move hard and fast and that rubs her raw. i believe circumcision is the cause of an unnecessary 'war between the sexes'. it's tragic.

the prepuce/foreskin is similar to the eyelid, and you know how smart an eyelid is. it KNOWS when something is threatening it. and it QUICKLY moves to protect the eye. it keeps the eyeball moist and clean. an eyeball without its eyelid would soon dry out and lose its ability to see well.

the foreskin is very smart, like the eyelid. it senses where the man is in the act of intercourse, where the woman is, and it adjusts movements accordingly, so that sex works well for both lovers.

the foreskin is self-lubricating, like the eyelid. the inner foreskin has a mucosal surface. natural sex -- his mucosal tissue touching her mucosal tissue -- is much like french kissing. extremely sensuous -- electric.

you might like the equipment you have now. but if you ever start having trouble with it -- and a lot of men do start having trouble -- at different ages -- some very young -- then you might want to change your mind about foreskin restoration. it helps men who have lost their ability to feel or have erections or orgasms, to have the glans covered and to regenerate some of the nerve endings they have lost. it feels better for the woman too.

the most sensitive part of most men's penises is the frenulum remnant on the bottom of the glans... you were supposed to have fifteen square inches of skin with feelings that exquisite. men who have been intact, then cut as adults, then restore, say that they get most of it back. and many who were disabled in that way, regain their sexual health and happiness.

as for all the reasons you have heard to justify circumcision? do more research, please. i can find no legitimate medical reason for circumcising infants... and neither can any national medical organization in the world. each medical claim/excuse has been disproved -- one right after the other. 80% of the men in the world are intact and healthy. the US is 37th in the world in health, and it leads the industrialized nations in both circumcision AND HIV.

if you read leonard glick's chapter in 'understanding circumcision' (

Re:You are absolutely wrong.

[Belial6]

I see by your comparison of pancreatic cancer to the problems associated with not being circumcised that you are fully aware that your statement about there being no medical reason to circumcise was untrue.

Notice that I neither said that circumcision was good nor bad. I even went so far as to say that the benefits and drawbacks can be debated. I only targeted one single point of your post that was untrue, and you validated it. In response, you made an absurd statement and tried to attribute it to me. This puts you in the camp of 'fanatic', as you ignore what you don't want to hear, and attempt to villify those that don't accept every detail of your argument. Even when it is clear that you know you are lying about some of them.

You also show dishonesty in your argument (another indication of fanaticisms) by comparing preventative treatment between a person having major surgery for an ailment that affects .0001% of the population with one that is minor surgery (not even requiring stitches) that affects as much as 10 percent of the population.

I will repeat again, in case you still have a hard time understanding, the benefits and drawbacks can be debated all day long, but the statement that there is no medical reason for for circumcision is unequivocally wrong.

Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer...

[Digital Vomit]

Oh yeah, we'll be able to regrow a lost limb soon, but it'll probably cost an arm and a leg.

Regrowing teeth is nice, but...

[GoMMiX]

One thing a lot of people overlook when considering this as a future option is that as they allow their teeth to rot it's not just their teeth rotting.

Many people put off getting proper dental care until they've waited too late -- once infection starts setting in it doesn't just rot the tooth - it also rots the bone the tooth is rooted in.

So if you've got issues with your teeth and you're thinking this may be a future option - make sure you properly care for your teeth now or you may not be able to take advantage of these future options so easily.

Having a genetically engineered tooth surgically placed is one thing - it's a totally new story when your surgeon has to grind down the damaged bone in order to create a proper rooting surface (A common practice for people getting posts when they let their teeth go bad for a prolonged period).

I have also read of people prone to sinus infections losing root surfaces.

I've always had chalky teeth -- and for several years now I've been following the progress in this area. One of the first things I learned was how important it was to preserve the root surface. So don't put off proper care.

Building adjacent cells

[v4vijayakumar]

If a cell contains all information about how to build the adjacent cells, and there are available all required ingredients (?!) to build adjacent cells, then the cell can start building the adjacent cells and so on. Is it right?!

Dorsal slit.

[Upaut]

The men in my family have had an odd genetic condition where our forskins do not grow fast enough, and cuts off circulation to the tip. So the men, since the procedure was developed, have had dorsal slits done. Except me. Because when I went to the table, the doctor got confused, not knowing the difference, and CUT IT ALL OFF (The foreskin, not the dick... ).

I agree, I want that bit of my dick back.

Re:Dorsal slit.

[MyIS]

Not to repeat the same argument over and over, but you represent an odd 0.001% of population. Does that warrant cutting the rest of people's genitals?

People seem to want to justify their existing condition... Feels eerily like Stockholm syndrome to me. Just like was pointed out before, it's probably not that big of a deal either way; however for all the respect we have for human rights, why is cutting a tiny baby penis justified by something that is "not a big deal"?

Yea! I cant wait to use my woodchipper again

[skeptictank]

and my threshing machine also.