The Race to Grow New Organs

This article talks about growing new organs. Organs that are synthesized actually come from organs that have been decellurlarized and only a basic structure are left in their place. the '"scaffolding"of the organ that is left is then coated with stem cells and introduced to an organism to be allowed to grow. In the article, they give an example of a boy with spina bifida, a defect of his spine that caused his bladder to become paralyzed. A laboratory was able to engineer him a new bladder which now, ten years latter is fully functional. Although the bladder is a relativly simple organ, the fact that one can be grown with a persons stem cells is absolutely amazing. Scientists now are working on ways to successfully engineer more complex organs such as hearts, lungs and kidneys. The stem cells used in these experiments are collected from adults from spinal fluid, a woman's placenta or amniotic fluid, or even fat. This is interesting because it means this research is not halted through the use of embryonic stem cell use.




http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/12/07/future-of-medicine-growing-new-organs.html