Scientists learn how to grow organs

A team of researchers are finding ways to grow human organs for use in medical transplants.

It is amazing what scientists can grow. First they grew human skin in a laboratory, and now, they have discovered a way to grow complete, functioning human organs!

A team of researchers including plastic surgeons, stem cell experts, biochemists and chemical engineers at the Bernard O’Brien Institute at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne have successfully grown muscle, pancreas, liver, bowel and breast tissue.

But here’s something quirky: instead of transplanting the organs into a person’s body, they make them grow inside the patient!

How does it work?

One of the biggest challenges in growing organs is the need for a blood supply to sustain the organ. The research team has overcome this challenge with an ingenious approach.

A small specially-designed chamber, shaped like the desired organ, is inserted into the organ recipient. Lying inside the chamber is a blood vessel made up of an artery and a vein joined together. This vessel provides a blood supply to the growing tissue.

Over time, the blood vessel supplies the necessary nutrients and cells to promote tissue growth inside the chamber. By adding materials from other parts of the body, for example stem cells, scientists will be able to dictate the type of tissue that grows.

So far the team’s studies have focused on growing fat tissue, with a recent experiment successfully growing breasts in pigs over a period of six weeks.

This amazing advancement could spell the end of long waiting list for organ transplants, but much more research is needed to ensure long-term safety.

www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s925309.htm

The Lab, ABC Science online at http://abc.net.au/science/news/