![\"rat-lung\"](\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/d1128_rat-lung.jpg\")
Step 1: Take a rat lung. Step 2: Strip away all of its living cells, leaving only a fibrous “scaffold” of connective tissue. Step 3: Bathe the scaffold in lung cells taken from newborn rats, and put the whole thing in a bioreactor to let the cells multiply and spread. Step 4: A few days later, when the reconstructed lung is again filled with blood vessels and alveoli, transplant the organ into a living rat. Step 5: Watch in awe as the lung begins to function.<\/p>
That’s the short version of the experiment Yale University researchers just published<\/a> in Science<\/em>. The study was a result of a change in direction for lead researcher Laura Niklason:<\/p> Niklason spent several years trying to create a synthetic lung scaffold, but in the end concluded it was too difficult. “I decided I couldn’t do it, and probably nobody else could either,” she said. [National Geographic<\/a>]<\/p> <\/span>The proof-of-concept study showed that a lung reconstructed on a natural scaffold could serve its intended purpose in vivo<\/em> at least temporarily, but the medical applications of this technology are far off. Theoretically, a fibrous collegen scaffold could be taken from a dead donor and put into a living patient without triggering an immune response, but living cells are another matter. To prevent the patient from rejecting the new lung, researchers will have to find a better source for the cells that would coat the scaffold.<\/p> Scientists could perhaps take healthy cells from a patient’s lungs, or they could take other cells from the patient and coax them back into a stem cell-like state, allowing them to grow into all the necessary forms of lung tissue.<\/p> “I clearly don’t think we’ve solved the whole problem, but I sort of feel like we’re laying train tracks into the mountains,” Niklason said. “We haven’t gotten to the other side of the mountain range yet, but when we do, I hope there’s a big bus of stem cells waiting for us.” [Los Angeles Times<\/a>]<\/p> For a more thorough explanation of this work and its potential implications for human medicine, check out Ed Yong’s post<\/a> at Not Exactly Rocket Science.<\/p> Related Content: Image: Science \/ Thomas Petersen, et al.<\/em><\/p> Step 1: Take a rat lung. Step 2: Strip away all of its living cells, leaving only a fibrous “scaffold” of connective tissue. Step 3: Bathe the scaffold in lung cells taken from newborn rats, and put the whole thing … Continue reading
Not Exactly Rocket Science: Lungs Rebuilt in Lab and Transplanted Into Rats<\/a>
80beats: Can Sight Be Restored With Stem Cells Grown on Contact Lenses?<\/a>
80beats: Brain Reconstruction: Stem-Cell Scaffolding Can Repair Stroke Damage<\/a>
80beats: Doctors Use a Patient’s Own Stem Cells to Build Her a New Windpipe<\/a>
80beats: Researchers Could Grow Replacement Tissue to Patch Broken Hearts<\/a><\/p><\/a>
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