SAN ANTONIO, May 28 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers are testing a regeneration powder that could help injured soldiers regrow fingers and other body parts lost in battle.
The powder, nicknamed 'Pixie Dust,' is made from tissue extracted from pigs. It attracts stem cells and convinces them to grow into the tissue that used to be there, CNN reported Tuesday. Doctors used the powder last week on a wounded soldier in Texas to encourage the regeneration of a finger in lost in Iraq.
"If it is next to the skin, it will start making skin. If it's next to a tendon, it will start making a tendon, and so that's the hope, at least in this particular project, that we can grow a finger," Dr. Steven Wolf of Brooke Army Medical Center told CNN.
Doctors said they are watching patients for unexpected side effects, such as cancer.
