Regenerative Medicine

FOX ^ | Dr. Manny Alvarez

[Coleus]

A couple of weeks ago Wake Forest University physicians described the first human recipients of a laboratory-grown organ. In the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet," Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, detailed a series of patients (children and teenagers) who received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. WHAAAAT? Did somebody say "laboratory organs?!"

Yes. Perhaps like you, the first reaction of some who heard the news was, “why would anyone need a new bladder?” Well, many infants are born with congenital birth defects a very serous one is spina bifida (incomplete closure of the spine). One of the effects of this condition is the inability to urinate at will, or even to regulate the build up of urine, which could then back up into the kidneys, creating even more damage. This condition puts a tremendous burden on the patients. Some have urinary leakage and some must manually empty the bladder. Some of these patients have surgical procedures to build their non-functional bladders using intestinal tissues. The problem with this old procedure is that patients experience side effects like loss of bone density, increased risk of bladder cancer and kidney stones.

This is where the new, exciting field of "regenerative medicine" comes in. What it really means is "to regenerate," to build something from a source. To oversimplify it a bit, it's like making new body parts with the help of your own body. These scientists took the patients’ own cells and, in a laboratory, grew a new organ in this case, a bladder, which they then surgically put in to the same patients, thus giving them a new functioning organ.

The importance of this new report is tremendous.

[Coleus]

Democrats plan to make destructive stem cell research an issue; bladders grown from adult stem cells

[AntiGuv]

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[Snoopers-868th]

This ought to bankrupt health care costs if it gets up and running. I suspect the procedures will be rather expensive.

[yuta250]

Bump to read later.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Actually it should reduce health care costs compared to organ transplants which require immune suppressing drugs at several kilobucks per month per person. Diabetics could then get a new pancreas grown once rather than taking multiple daily shots of insulin. A number of folks are working on the technologies for "printing" organs. This is nontrivial as you have to build in blood supplies and keep the whole thing fed and oxygenated while you are printing it.

regards,

[neverdem]

bfl

[Sun]

Amazing!