A BBC News article: "It might seem unbelievable, but researchers can grow organs in the laboratory. There are patients walking around with body parts which have been designed and built by doctors out of a patient's own cells. ... There is a pressing need. A shortage of available organs means many die on waiting lists and those that get an organ must spend a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection. The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells to grow new body parts avoids the whole issue of rejection as well as waiting for a donor. ... Dr Anthony Atala [has] made breakthroughs in building bladders and urethras. He breaks tissue-building into four levels of complexity. 1) Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell. 2) Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit. 3) Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions. 4) Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply. ... We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex. ... One of the problems when you move to larger organs is the getting the blood supply to work, connecting arteries, capillaries and veins to keep the organ alive. It is why some researchers are investigating 'decellularisation' - taking an existing donated organ, stripping out the original cells and replacing them with new cells from the patient who will receive the organ."
22
Mar
2012
Popular Press on Organ Regrowth
Comments
Post a comment; thoughtful, considered opinions are valued. Please note that comments incorporating ad hominem attacks, advertising, and other forms of inappropriate behavior are likely to be deleted.
First Steps
- Read an Introduction to Living Longer
- Read the Fight Aging! FAQ
- Help Researchers Extend Healthy Life
- Sign up for the Fight Aging! Newsletter
The Causes of Aging
- Accumulating AGEs
- Buildup of Amyloid Between Cells
- The Failing Adaptive Immune System
- The Failing Innate Immune System
- Declining Lysosomal Function
- Mitochondrial DNA Damage
- Nuclear DNA Damage
- Buildup of Senescent Cells
- Other Causes of Aging
Archives and Feeds
- Monthly News and Blog Archives
- Newsletter Archive
- Using the Fight Aging! Content Feeds
- Fight Aging! on the Kindle
Required Reading
- Calorie Restriction
- The Community, Visualized
- Cryonics
- Enthusiasm for the Slow Road
- Envisaging a World Without the FDA
- How to Argue for Longevity Science
- The Odds of Human Longevity Mutations
- The Need For Activism and Advocacy
- SENS: Engineered Negligible Senescence
- Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine
- The Three Types of Aging Research
- Twelve Ways to Extend Mouse Life Span
- Transhumanism and Human Longevity
- What is Anti-Aging?
- Why Prioritize SENS Research?
Creative Commons
- All of Fight Aging!, with the exception of the introductory articles, is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. In short, this means that you are encouraged to republish and rewrite Creative Commons licensed Fight Aging! content in any way you see fit, the only requirements being that you (a) link to the original, (b) attribute the author, and (c) attribute Fight Aging!.