Scientists Could Grow New Organs from Patients’ Own Cells

New technology could allow people in need of new organs to grow their own replacement body parts.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on October 13 2010

There are more than 100,000 people on organ transplant waiting lists right now, with just over 14,000 transplants performed in the first six months of the year. Patients often wait months or even years to receive a much-needed organ transplant, and hundreds die each year before they can find a match.

But new technology offers great promise for future transplant patients. Scientists have long been working on lab rats to regenerate their organs—but this summer, researchers at Yale University led by biomedical engineer Laura Niklason found that they were able to regenerate one of the most complex organs, the lung, by seeding a stripped scaffold of collagen with lung cells that had been harvested from deceased rats. The cells quickly grew to form new blood vessels and airways, and could be transplanted into a rat as a working lung within just eight days.

It may sound a little Frankenrat-ish, but macabre as it may be, this technology could have amazing benefits for human patients in the future. The researchers haven’t yet worked out a way to successfully reseed a new organ with cells from the patient’s own body, which will be necessary to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. However, Niklason believes that within 20 years, she will have perfected the science so well that organ transplant patients will be able to grow their own organs, rather than spend years waiting for donors.

After all, Niklason said, “I didn’t get into this to make lungs for rats.”

Are you an organ donor? We can’t grow our own lungs yet, so please sign up to save a life!

Filed under: Health and Wellbeing, Science,

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