#bioartificial

Researchers develop functional living membrane in massive leap towards a bioartificial kidney. Thoughts health innovators?

The limited removal of metabolic waste products in dialyzed kidney patients leads to high morbidity and mortality.  A bioartificial kidney could replace the need for dialysis or transplantation in the millions of patients with kidney failure. A key requirement for such a device is the formation of a ‘living membrane’, consisting of a tight kidney cell layer on artificial membrane surfaces, that…

Universidad lusa crea páncreas bioartificial para tratar diabetes

Universidad lusa crea páncreas bioartificial para tratar diabetes

Un equipo de investigadores de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Coimbra (FMUC) está desarrollando un páncreas bioartificial para tratar la diabetes mediante una microcápsula con células productoras de insulina.

Este proyecto, que pretende suplir las células productoras de insulina que son destruidas en la diabetes tipo…

A team of scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston made news earlier this month when they published research in the journal Biomaterials describing how they'd created the world's first bioartificial limb in the laboratory.

Or, in other words: scientists have now grown the entire forelimb of a rat in a lab.

Dr. Harold Ott, head of the Ott Laboratory for Organ Engineering and Regeneration,and his team were able to "engineer rat forelimbs with functioning vascular and muscle tissue," according to the hospital.

The scientists used a process called decellularization. They removed the living tissue from an existing rat limb, leaving just a "framework" — made of things like proteins — behind. Then they re-populated that "scaffolding" with new, living cells.

This may be an important first step leading to the eventual creation of functional, bioartificial limbs that could be used in transplants. That could be a step up from existing prosthetic devices.

In Massachusetts Lab, Scientists Grow An Artificial Rat Limb

Researchers successfully bioengineer whole forelimb, transplant and reanimate it in animal model. Thoughts health innovators?

A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have made the first steps towards development of bioartificial replacement limbs suitable for transplantation. In their report the researchers describe using an experimental approach previously used to build bioartificial organs to engineer rat forelimbs with functioning vascular and muscle tissue. The data findings also provided…

(Image credit: Australian Broadcasting Company -- NSW news.)

One of the most catastrophic things that can happen to a person's health is for one of their organs to fail.  From hearts to lungs to kidneys, there is a universal push around the world to get all healthy people to be organ donors.  Despite record numbers of donations, organ donation rates should still be much higher, and the waiting lists are filled with people who will likely never receive the life-saving organs their bodies need.  Campaigns abound to raise awareness and dispel myths surrounding organ donation, yet there's still much work to be done.

Although great strides are being made towards bioartificial organs, the way to save more lives now is to increase donations, and to encourage people to be healthy enough so that their organs are actually usable.  In the meantime, asking who the recipients of these organs should and shouldn't be has led to a huge ethical conundrum; what about the disabled, those with severe birth defects and mental deficiencies, or those in need of multiple transplants?  And should we allow monetary compensation for things like marrow donation to up the number of donors, or possibly opt everyone in by default, and then require them to opt out of donation?

Check out the Organ Transplants Trap to stay on top of the latest news, and become an organ donor today; no one wants to think about their own death, but what more heroic final gift is there to the world than by using your body to save lives?