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Grow Your Own Replacement Bones

Posted by michael on from the not-made-of-adamantium-unfortunately dept.

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.

9 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. joking aside, by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    --
    I always wanted an iPod how about you?

    1. Re:joking aside, by hpulley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Too bad it sounds like this is just generic bone grown in a mold, not actually a grown jawbone which knows its own shape. While it is cool that they can do this, I hope it leads to more complicated things like joints being grown to the right shape later as right now we can't do implantable prosthetic wrists or ankles, just too complicated. I know, as I have had reconstructive wrist surgery due to bone loss from a bone tumor; as good a job as they did with metal, cement, etc., it is not and never will be 100% as good as the original. I'd gladly have a wrist growing on my back for a while if it meant being 100% as good as before.

      --
      $#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
  2. Re:remove the titanium? by garcia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  3. So, why not teeth? by Bobzibub · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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

  4. Re:Some people still bitch by danratherfan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:Let's get the puns out of the way by cleverhandle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:A perfect example by BillFarber · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Hopefully Bush will read this article and wake up.

    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.

  7. Re:Some people still bitch by groomed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Great. by RLW · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.