Slashdot Mirror
Rats Breathe Air From Lungs Grown In the Lab
cremeglace writes "'For the first time, an animal has drawn a breath with lungs cultivated in the lab.' Although preliminary, the results might eventually lead to replacement lungs for patients. Researchers at Yale University have successfully applied a technique called decellularization that involves using detergent to remove all of the cells from an organ, leaving a scaffold consisting of the fibrous material between cells."
"WITH" not "FROM"
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
Replicating the effectiveness of a whale's lungs in humans. Our lungs suck.
See, now you can mod this both Interesting AND funny!
This is a wonderful age to be a mouse/rat.
Biotech is amazing!
Remind me to never wash with that detergent...
Up next, rats get erections from penises grown in the lab. Pfizer buys all patents and markets a complement drug to Viagra.
Feeling like you're gonna die?
Feeling like you can't take another breath?
Enter the Philip Morris "WIN A LUNG" contest?
Just send in one Marlboro proof of purchase today!
Philip Morris: "Making things Better With Tobacco" (TM)
Void where prohibited by law.
What exactly would that accomplish, besides creating one very likely brain damaged and paralyzed monkey? We already know that we use brains for learning, hardly something that needs testing in such a convulted manner.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
No. It's not possible to transplant the brain. Well, it is technically... the problem comes when you try to rewire the brainstem to the spine. Also, the chemical messages to/from the body probably won't match up and that alone would cause problems.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Beyond that, it would be completely pointless. Learned behaviors, depending on the type, are known from experimentation (and the occasional "lucky" bit of brain damage) to reside in specific lobes of the brain (e.g. most trained reflexes are controlled by the cerebellum). We'd learn nothing except that the scientists involved are immoral. Particularly since a lot of the training would be for the original body; trying to control a dissimilar body would make it nigh impossible to display the effects of any training due to the difficulty in just figuring out how to breathe, move, etc.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
The article mentions a similar procedure performed on the liver. Have they done any research into growing new kidneys? There are a lot of people dependent on dialysis who could really use a "quick and easy" way to get a new kidney. (At least as compared to the approximately seven year wait list for a donor transplant now. Or, you know, trying your luck in Thailand.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
+1 WTF?
THL phish sticks
It's entirely possible. Just be sure to reconnect voice control first, so Spock can help you out.
Not possible, and if they aren't hooked up immediately, the host body's heart would stop, along with hundreds of other more or less vital processes.
Not quite. Most vital processes are autonomic - i.e. not under control of the brain itself. Cut someone's head off, and the heart keeps beating until it's starved of blood and oxygen.
Keep alive without access to a circulatory system for the time needed to perform the transfer
Two words: cold storage. Medicine has made tremendous progress in its understanding of how to cool the body and the brain to minimize damage from lack of oxygen.
That said, I agree that the proposed experiment is pretty useless, as that question has already been answered: yes, it would transfer.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Next up, Lord Vader replaces his breather mask with mouse lungs. Boy, he's gonna be pissed! Or else the mouse is going to force-choke someone if he doesn't get his cheese, fast! "I assure you commander, that the Mouse Emperor will not be as lenient as I am. Perhaps you think you're being treated ... unfairly?"
My sig is better than your sig.
I will begin smoking immediately in preparation and celebration!
Worst Slashdot joke ever. To call it stupid and moronic would be giving it too much credit.
Actually, the heart is controlled by the brainstem. Decapitation should stop the human heart fairly quick.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
"the results might eventually lead to replacement lungs for patients"
I won't hold my breath for it!
. .
... but oh well. Is the lung manufactured in such a way that it assimilates to a level that will affect its children's lungs? ... cuz those sons-a-bitches move like greased lightning and I almost killed myself in my garage trying to catch one.
The reason I ask is that maybe we can consider making the lungs function in such a way that it causes the mice to breathe slower and therefore _be_ slower and easier to catch
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Pediatrist at Emory wants to disagree:http://www.pediatrics.emory.edu/ccm/lectures/files/Brain%20Death.ppt
Warning: PPT. Heart rate is controlled by various parts of the nervous system, including certain parts of the brain, but it is still most dependent on the autonomic nervous system. What stops the heart quickest is lack of oxygen through lack of respiration, which is what gets stopped once the brain stem gets removed.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Now all those rats used in the smoking studies will be able to get new lungs! Hooray!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There's no way you don't use or benefit from animal products or testing. Does that mean you are scum too?
Actually, the pace of the heart is set by the SA node. The brainstem and other factors can make the heart beat faster or slower in response to stress, but the heart paces itself.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
The researchers allowed the animals to breathe with the lungs for up to 2 hours before euthanizing them because of blood clots.
They're not quite there yet...
Similar experiments have been performed...
And here's the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJGlYOL0r4
A huge victory for smoking rats everywhere!
A child could do it!
Ask him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._White
H2S
We are working on a telomerase activator. The lungs are made from stem cells that have to replicate many times before the lungs are fully grown. If they can do their replications with active telomerase, then, when they are ready to be transplanted they are equivalent to baby lungs in the youthfulness of the tissue. Otherwise they are, despite being unused, like the lungs of an old person.
I quit smoking years ago, but I could sure use a set. However this time I want a set that has been "augmented". Higher capacity, better throughput, the works! Just make a few mods to the DNA before you start growing them. Not enough cause rejection, though. This is so cool.
Social Credit would solve everything...
It's the ultimate in recycling!.
"I love his boyish charm, but I hate his childishness" - Leela
My father's diagnosed with lung cancer. Never been a smoker. Lived a rather healthy life.
Provided there is no metastasis he will be under surgery on July 2nd.
This is good news. Maybe not for him.
GeneCo provides organ transplantation for profits. In addition to financing options, GeneCo reserves the right to implement default remedies, including repossession. For those who can't keep up with their organ payments, collection is the responsibility of "organ repo men", skilled assassins contracted by GeneCo. Repo men are ordered to recover GeneCo's property by any means necessary.
Rats Breathe Air From Lungs Grown In the Lab
Argh! Stop trying to cure rats. We have billions of rats, we don't need to try to heal the unhealthy ones.
I for one would like to see an animal rights group to bring down some of its wisdom down on that lab.
if they could manage to grow and implant gills into rats that would rock
The researchers are not trying to save rats. They're trying to save human lives. Unfortunately, it isn't wise to use experimental medical procedures on humans as sometimes the treatment being tested ends up doing more harm than good.
I can't tell if you're just trying to be funny or if you really don't understand this.
I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Emory.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
This was exactly the response I was looking for. ;-)
Of course someone still needs to give up their lung, but since the cells themselves are stripped away it could plausibly be taken from a cadaver. The tough restrictions associated with transplanting a still-living organ would not exist, or could be significantly relaxed.
Remembered reading this a few years back. For a bit of quick ingenuity: doctor throws together a dialysis machine, saves baby. Cheers.