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Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

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Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#31

Post by markc »

alexose wrote: post #16
c141charlie wrote: post #11

True statement. I lost a finger tip in a mandolin making potatoes lyonnaise. It mostly grew back. However, it has never felt the same. It's like the nerve endings in the finger tip throw unhandled exceptions. Some say properly cooked french food is worth it. i agree.

As an accident-prone home chef myself, I highly recommend a pair of kevlar "cut gloves" for anything involving a mandolin, peeler, or grater. They're just a few bucks and can save you a lot of tears.

Seconded. I also lost a fingertip to a mandoline when slicing potatoes. On Xmas eve, just as guests were arriving. And oh boy did it bleed!

My fingertip took over 3 years to regain full feeling, and it's still slightly flattened compared to the rest of my fingers. (I made the front page of reddit with an animation of the regrowth!)

Since then I bought cut gloves because I'm now semi-phobic about using the damn thing without them.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#32

Post by xtracto »

pugworthy wrote: post #22

Not exactly the tip, but I sliced a good 1/8" or so off my thumb print once with a table saw. I was very impressed that my thumbprint mostly grew back, except for some scar pattern in the middle.

I lost the upper phalanx of one of my thumbs when I was 6 years old in an accident. They could not attach it and never grew back. 10 years later I read about an American scientist that managed to grow back full body parts using some kind of pigs but extract... I wish that science was more advanced.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#33

Post by tata71 »

zck wrote: post #20
lqet wrote: post #5

I chopped off around 3-4mm off the tip of my left index finger as a kid with a lawn trimmer. 20 years later, I punched a nice groove around 3mm deep into the tip of another finger tip while trying to get tea out of a tea tube [0] (don't buy these things). It took weeks, but both times, the tips grew back perfectly round and smooth, even the fingerprints are back. The regrown tips felt a bit numb for 1-2 months, but t…

Any idea if your fingerprints are the same as before?

Good point, is identical only an assumption?

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#34

Post by BrazzVuvuzela »

tata71 wrote: post #33
zck wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea if your fingerprints are the same as before?

Good point, is identical only an assumption?

It seems somewhat plausible. Identical twins often have broadly similar, although still distinct, fingerprints: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22558204/

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#36

Post by monetus »

The body never forgot how to regenerate, it just learned how to scar - to prevent infection - or at least that is what I heard a wake forest researcher say after helping grow back a finger with stem cells from the individual and powdered proteins from a decelled pig's bladder.

Edit: the individual was in his 50s

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#37

Post by ksb »

markc wrote: post #31
alexose wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an accident-prone home chef myself, I highly recommend a pair of kevlar "cut gloves" for anything involving a mandolin, peeler, or grater. They're just a few bucks and can save you a lot of tears.

Seconded. I also lost a fingertip to a mandoline when slicing potatoes. On Xmas eve, just as guests were arriving. And oh boy did it bleed! My fingertip took over 3 years to regain full feeling, and it's still slightly flattened compared to the rest of my fingers. (I made the front page of reddit with an animation of the regrowth!) Since then I bought cut gloves because I'm now semi-phobic about using the damn thing…

As somebody who has also lost a chunk of my finger to a mandolin (regrew including print) this thread has convinced me that mandolins are just not worth it.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#39

Post by lurquer »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #18
lqet wrote: post #5

I chopped off around 3-4mm off the tip of my left index finger as a kid with a lawn trimmer. 20 years later, I punched a nice groove around 3mm deep into the tip of another finger tip while trying to get tea out of a tea tube [0] (don't buy these things). It took weeks, but both times, the tips grew back perfectly round and smooth, even the fingerprints are back. The regrown tips felt a bit numb for 1-2 months, but t…

Pure wild speculation: I suspect that an awful log of our biological form is fractals formed from chemical gradients, with our DNA controlling the amounts of each chemical, both how fast they're produced and consumed. Included in this are some wild "Programs" were Chemical A causes Chemical B to be produced, Chemical B produces Chemical C and chemical C shuts off chemical A - In wild patterns that eventually form the…

Turing’s diffusion/reaction algorithm involved this. As you intuited, it is a good system for making fractal-like designs and patterns. Cheetah spots, zebra stripes, maybe even 3D structures like capillaries...

But, such a system can’t make discrete forms—like a nose.

There’s something else going on.

For instance... deer grow antlers every season (antlers are not horns; rather, they are complex structures with tissue, bone, skin, nerves, etc) Anyway, if a growing antler is nicked, scar tissue will form... no big deal, right? But, this is where it gets weird... When the antlers fall off and then grow the following year, the scar will be present on the new antlers. Let that sink in.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#40

Post by causi »

lurquer wrote: post #39
GauntletWizard wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pure wild speculation: I suspect that an awful log of our biological form is fractals formed from chemical gradients, with our DNA controlling the amounts of each chemical, both how fast they're produced and consumed. Included in this are some wild "Programs" were Chemical A causes Chemical B to be produced, Chemical B produces Chemical C and chemical C shuts off chemical A - In wild patterns that eventually form the…

Turing’s diffusion/reaction algorithm involved this. As you intuited, it is a good system for making fractal-like designs and patterns. Cheetah spots, zebra stripes, maybe even 3D structures like capillaries... But, such a system can’t make discrete forms—like a nose. There’s something else going on. For instance... deer grow antlers every season (antlers are not horns; rather, they are complex structures with tissue…

Not that such a thing is impossible with epigenetics, but do you have a source for that?
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