Regeneration recipe: Pinch of pig, cell of lizard
Here's more info on the regeneration using pig bladder powder http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17171083/ http://www.acell.com/ Looks like Acell is the company that supplies the powder. I'm going to look into the cost of this stuff. This is from Acell's website Summary ACell, Inc. offers the next generation of regenerative medicine through the development, manufacture, and marketing of unique extracellular matrix ('ECM') products. ACell's patented ECM products are covered by multiple 510(k) clearances and address important unmet clinical needs, providing safe, effective and economic therapeutic outcomes to the medical community. Derived from porcine urinary bladders and referred to as UBM (short for urinary bladder matrix), ACell's extracellular matrix is a naturally occurring, non-crosslinked, completely resorbable, acellular biomaterial. A similar "first generation" ECM technology called SIS (derived from porcine small intestine) already has been used to treat over 500,000 human patients with remarkable effect. ACell's UBM has unique characteristics which should allow it to significantly exceed the performance of SIS in certain key human medical markets. ECMs are unique from other scaffold technologies in that they fundamentally change healing by triggering abundant new blood vessel formation and recruiting numerous cell types to the wound site. These cells, including progenitor cells, have the potential to differentiate into numerous types of site specific tissues. During the healing process, the scaffold is rapidly degraded and completely resorbed, leaving new tissue where scar tissue would normally be expected. ACell's patented UBM scaffold technology can be used in a broad range of medical applications such as wound care, general surgery, urology, gynecology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, orthopaedics and cardiovascular surgery.

I've posted this article under doctor houser's q/a section but this gives clues to how they are applything this Acell material: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/doctors-try-new-techniques-to-regrow/n20070212104209990008?cid=1219 Interestingly they are reopening the skin at the amputation site and applying the powder every other day for two weeks.

may be complicated with the nose but certainly not impossible. certainly worth the discomfort.

I'm interested to see if the finger respond to tissue regeneration months or even years after amputation, how much if any of the tissue will regrow, and how much nerve sensation the fingers will have. Also it would be interesting to see if this material would work as an injection. Sounds like it may have better regenerative properties than tissue fillers like Cymetra. Acell's product has shown much promise in animal models on many different body parts. Also it appears to work better than SIS. This is exciting stuff if it can be applied to turbinate regeneration!

David, I spoke to a technical director about Acell product's and possibility of it's application on ENS. The Technical Director believed that it was a good application for their product and would mention this application to Dr. Spievak, the founder of ACell. He esimated that the Acell matrix product will be available to humans in about 9 to 12 months. Also he did say that the powdered product has been proven effective as an injectable as well. It has been proven in animal models for bone regeneration, vocal fold regeneration, cartilage regeneration, etc. I did ask if it could possible regenerate bone after amputation. Turns out that it can do this but the callous that forms over the bone may need to be scraped off first for the bone to regenerate properly. Thus for a turbinate the mucosa would need to be opened and the turbinate bone scraped of the existing callous that forms over the bone. In any case he did review our website and said as long as there is a blood supply the regenerative response is excellent and the product has an excellent safety profile. ACell's product performs better than SIS on applications for epithilium as it still contains the base membrane cells. ACell is just beginning to ramp up their products and are speaking to Stem Cell research organizations for possibilities of coroboration. They have been stalled because of patent litigation over the last several years. It would be nice to see if this produces better results than Cymetra as an injectable and of course if it can truly regenerate a turbinate when placed over a wound.

TT This is great news!! Thank you for getting in touch with Acell. I didn't get a chance to call them today but will call tomorrow. Looks like we might have something soon that has the possibility of making big improvements in ENS symptoms. Keep up the good work David

This news regarding the pig bladder is encouraging. The question in the back of my mind is: If it is available in 9-12 months, then what doctors will be trying it out for their patients? Dr. Houser, I presume, will be on the frontlines. The second question I ask (my pessimistic side) is what will happen if this pig bladder does not turn out to be as promising as it was set out to be? Contrary to its early promises, Cymetra has been disappointing. What if this product turns out disappointing, too? Then we back at square one. In this latter instance, I think we ENS sufferers do need to do what we can for ourselves in the meantime. At least we know that Alloderm has shown promising results that have resulted in consistent 30-50%+ improvement among its patients. Thanks for your updates and information, TT. I appreciate your efforts and I do hope pig bladder is very helpful to ENS. It is exciting to learn about!

cristobalm23, I am very encouraged by what I've read and heard of this product. You're right, that this is not in the clinic yet for humans but it is in clinical trials for finger regeneration for humans and has a consistent regenerative result in animals. It has similar safety profile as SIS and resorbs into the body like collagen but leaving lasting site specific tissue. I think it is important to note that Cymetra and even Alloderm were new for ENS just a few years ago. You know first hand how much it has helped you. I think that Anthony will argue that Cymetra has not been disappointing. You're right to say that just because it is available to for use in 9 to 12 months does not mean that doctors will begin treating ENS with it shortly. I am sure though that if it does work, Dr. Houser will be among the first to be using it.

It does sound encouraging!

I talked with Acell today. They were very helpful and I talked with them for about thirty minutes. The technology has been approved by the FDA but acell doesn't have any available right now since production was put on hold because of a previous lawsuit between them and Cook biotech. Now that they are in the clear, they are restarting production. The good news is that because its been FDA approved already for certain medical applications, doctors should be able to use it off label. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use

thats awsome.....

David, Did you find out anything new about the product in your 30 minute conversation. Other than what you have mentioned of course.

Nothing that I didn't already post. I'm thinking about calling them again this week to get specifics on when it will be available

David, I forgot to mention some questions that they answered for me. What is the success rate with the ACell product? Rougly 90% success rate of regeneration of tissue. If the location has little to no blood supply for example trying to regenerate cartilage sometimes more difficult. Also I asked if they have biopsied patients and it does truly regenerate site-specific tissue rather than just scar tissue. Injections of their product did improve urinary incontinence in dogs for about a year. Currently they have to produce the product for the upcoming trials this summer. They expect to have product commercially available by at least the end of the year. Also Dr. Speivak the founder of the company could give a doctor the best methods to apply the product and prep the wound for regeneration and healing. Here are some of the animal cases that they have done. These results are quite amazing. http://www.acell.com/vetcasestudies.html

Acells product appears to work similar to Stem Cell therapy but without the need of extracting them and injecting them. I suppose if Stem Cells will work some day on ENS then so will Acell's product: http://www.acell.com/news/TCOTHACellArticle.pdf “The mixture acts as a framework for the horse’s own circulating stem cells to populate the site and become appropriate, functional tissue as the area heals, rather than scar tissue,” added Mitchell. Like its close relative stem cell therapy, A-cell therapy has allowed veterinarians to add another useful tool to their belts to help sport horses return to their activities after, for example, injuring a suspensory ligament or straining a tendon. “The fiber patterns on tendons, at 60 days after treatment, look similar to the fiber pattern ultrasounds with stem cell therapy,” said Mitchell. “Stem cell therapy works well, but this process works just as well and doesn’t involve having to collect tissue to get the stem cells, augment them and put them back into the horse. The A-cell treatment is also less expensive. It’s not cheap, but it’s a lot cheaper than stem cell therapy.”