Organ grown in lab, successfully transplanted

PaulStat

PaulStat

PaulStat

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Cotham, Bristol
This is amazing, I realise it's only a start and technically the whole the thing wasn't grown in the lab but still a real breakthrough by the sounds of things.

Surgeons in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells.

....

To make the new airway, the doctors took a donor windpipe, or trachea, from a patient who had recently died.

Then they used strong chemicals and enzymes to wash away all of the cells from the donor trachea, leaving only a tissue scaffold made of the fibrous protein collagen.

This gave them a structure to repopulate with cells from Ms Castillo herself, which could then be used in an operation to repair her damaged left bronchus - a branch of the windpipe.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7735696.stm
 
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I'm completly medically inept so I could well be wrong here but wasn't stem cell type research one of the potential cures for some types of cancer? The one that affects your bone marrow? Lieukemia?sp?
 
Helium_Junkie said:
Can you still get stem cells from an adult though? I thought they had to come from babies or some such.
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Yup generally from the bone marrow, and in much smaller quantities. One of the best places to harbour them from is the placenta or from a growing foetus and that's the controversial bit
 
Sanguinnus said:
I'm completly medically inept so I could well be wrong here but wasn't stem cell type research one of the potential cures for some types of cancer? The one that affects your bone marrow? Lieukemia?sp?
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Well if they can regrow infected organs and then do a transplant to swap out the infected organs, then yes, loads of potential.

I'm not a medical person at all, but that seems to make sense to me. :)
 
Exciting times to be in medicine, I wish I'd gone into it.

A cure for HIV can't be far off, I'm sure we'll get cancer soon enough. Degenerative diseases aren't far off being controllable, if not beatable.

And people want to ban stem cell research? Short sighted, religious nutters.
 
platypus said:
And people want to ban stem cell research? Short sighted, religious nutters.
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It's the 'omg it comes from babies' view that's the problem, as has been shown in this article, not all stem cell research is done with cells from a baby, it's also done with cells from adults. :)
 
I wonder though, I mean a cure for diseases so prolific is of course a good thing but on the flip side i've always looked at these diseases as nature's method of population control, with cures for such diseases being potentially on the horizon it makes you wonder what the results on population would be or if other more powerful diseases would take their places.
 
The problem I have with lots of the diseases such as cancer is they take people that really don't deserve it.

I lost my best mate at uni to cancer last Christmas, he was just 22! He was a brilliant bloke but still, he lost the fight with cancer.

I see what you mean though, save everyone, then what do you do? Especially as these days people are living longer as well.
 
Skin cancer may have a vaccine soon:)

A vaccine for skin cancer may be available in five year thanks to the University of Queensland scientist who developed the Gardasil cervical cancer treatment.

Professor Ian Frazer has said trials on humans may begin next year, and that a vaccine for children aged 10 to 12 might be available in five to 10 years.

It would protect against squamous cell carcinoma – not the more deadly melanomas – and will target papillomavirus, a common infection that can turn abnormal cells cancerous.

Professor Frazer said: "What we've learnt is that the skin has natural defences that switch off killer T cells. We've found ways to overcome these blocks and let the immune system work.

"We now want to test vaccines in clinical trials, to find out whether they could be used to treat people."

Professor Ian Olver of the Australian Cancer Council, said that even if the vaccine were to work in humans, people would still have to stay out of the sun.

He said: "The traditional prevention messages of staying out of the sun during the hottest part of the day, covering up and using sun screen still apply. This would be an extra layer of protection."
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http://www.pharmacyeurope.net/defau...vaccine&page=article.display&article.id=14613
 
I cant wait for the days when they are able to regrow arms and legs.

Or maybe even new eyes for blind people, etc. The possibilities are endless.
 
As a smoker this kinda stuff makes me happy. :D

Imagine when they can just replace your whole body. Sweet.

One of my mates at work, must be about 25 got cancer this year and it really is awful, not to mention my grandad who also died but atleast he was oldER. Still 71 is too young imo. :(
 
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that's not so special, my organ grows and is successfully implanted all the time
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B@
 
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