Earlier, you might have read some researchers creating artificial nose and heart in lab. This time, we have found another exciting news; some scientists have produced kidneys for rats in laboratory and when the kidneys were transplanted into the rats, they started working fine!
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has created synthetic kidney around an existing kidney of a dead rat called “scaffold” using bio-engineering process. Researchers repopulated the structure with cells from both newborn rats and humans, and allowed the cells to grow in an incubator and started observing. Later they saw that the lab-grown kidney had started to produce urine!
Of course, it goes without saying that such genetically grown and engineered kidneys are a whole lot less effective than natural kidneys, but this is a good start to the future nonetheless. Here’s a video for you.
Harald Ott, the study’s senior author has said, “The resulting graft can be transplanted just like a donor kidney. If this technology can be scaled to human-sized grafts, patients suffering from renal failure who are currently waiting for donor kidneys or who are not transplant candidates could theoretically receive new organs derived from their own cells.”
Researchers have published their study in the journal Nature Medicine. They believe one day using this type of bio-engineering process, they will be able to make artificial kidneys for people.
Source: New Scientist
Thanks To: BBC
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