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Grow Your Own Replacement Bones
Tim writes "New Scientist reports on a German man who had a complete jaw transplant, after having his cancerous jawbone removed nine years ago. The twist? This jawbone was grown on his shoulder, using a titanium mold, bone marrow, and recombinant bone morphogenic protein." There's also a BBC story.
As creepy as this may be for those of us fortunate enough to still have all original parts, it's life-changing or even life-saving if you've lost a section of your skeleton (like this dude) for some reason.
Profoundly cool work.
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I always wanted an iPod how about you?
Because it wasn't necessary to remain in his body? I wouldn't exactly want a titanium bulge sticking out of my side if I didn't need it.
*oh the horrors*
Why is Bush and his administration against stem cell research again ???
Wouldn't the vast majority of americans want to have this technology available to them ?
I do not understand why we can't grow teeth. Wouldn't that be a great benefit?
Grab some DNA from an existing tooth, off to the farm. Good as new b/c they *are* new.
-b
The poor guy hasn't had a jaw in 9 years. He wants to be able to eat like a normal person. I understand that you feel this makes him whining, but the whole point behind medicine is to restore normal function. Its not like he was asking for the doc to grow a laser on his head or something. It is understandable that he would feel this way. I am sure he would agree that what they had done for him was a major improvement in his life, though.
There's a whole lot of ethical issues surrounding such an attempt. You know -- things like "owning" another person, cruel treatment, slavery, exploitation, defining what constitutes a legal person; stuff like that.
That's why there are bans on human cloning, because society hasn't actually resolved what we would feel comfortable saying we're allowed to do to the meat-socks we would grow.
Growing from scratch is both an amazing accomplishment and, to an extent, lessens some of the sticky issues surrounding the whole thing.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Flash forward 10-12 years, and imagine what this could do for other organs. Regrow a finger or a hand for amputees maybe? Suppose we get to work on other organs, such as the heart? Old guy in his 60's can just have new organs regrown to extend his healthy life expectancy to 150 years?
All of those sound like wonderful, noble goals for medicine, but even with my limited knowledge I can see that this particular achievement doesn't lead there directly. The nice thing about a bone that made this achievement possible is that (to a large extent) shape=function. Thus, the doctors could grow some bone matter into a mold and stick the resulting shape into place. But that's a big difference from doing something like "programming" the bone cells to become a jawbone, which is the kind of thing that would need to happen for regrowing arbitrary organs.
Not denying the utter coolness of this procedure at all... I just don't think it's quite as far-reaching as you make it out to be.
Except that Bush is against fetal stem cell research. This kind of stem cell research is supported by Bush. This case actually helps Bush's argument.
Bah, you have no idea how the man feels, or how his jawbone feels, or anything really. Look at you: you're bitching about people you don't even know.
Well the titanium was for a mold, not the implant. But if your jaw was lined with titanium, prior to your 10 rounds with Mike Tyson, I think you'd find that the results would be less than desireable.
Imagine if the crumple zone on the front of your car was equally indestructable.
Instead of your jaw absorbing the impact of a collision (i.e. a mean right hook), your new inflexible jawbone would try to more or less tear free from your face. That's provided your head doesn't spin to the side first, in which case your neck (along with your spine) will take the brunt of the impact.
Maybe they'll work-out how to regrow noses, and Michael Jackson can put that piece of his ear back?
I know you're kidding and all, but for what it's worth, cartilage has no real ability to regenerate. It has no vascular system, whereas bone has marrow.
Even the adage that it never stops growing all the way though old age, appears to be an urban myth. That was news to me, I'd always believed that. Really older people usually seem to have larger noses and earlobes, am I just imagining that ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartilage
-- NymblZ
Ignorance is a sty in the mind's eye
One man's abuse is another's joy. Who is to say what is abusive when it comes to one's own body ? Take breast implants for instance. What if a woman wants to reconstruct her physical image after a radical mastectomy ? Is that abusive ? While the doctor is in there why not have a little bit more mass than before ? Is this abusive. What if she has always wanted to be really big ? is that abusive ? where does one draw the line ? What is someone is really short because of underdeveloped limbs ? There is a procedure for lengthing existing bones. whould it be abusive for this short person to have their legs lengthend a bit ? Something to ponder.
A friend of mine who broke a toe went to the ER to have it fixed. As she was thinking to herself that the wait was taking forever, a woman was rushed in, and then my friend heard the people who accompanied her talk about how that woman no longer had a face after getting kicked by a horse, and were wondering what would or could be done.
Suddenly she didnt feel so bad about her broken toe.
When she told me, I made a mental note to stay away from large animals.
allowing surplus embryos that were going to be destroyed anyways to be used for scientific research that will help people is the height of degradation.