Slashdot Mirror
Lab Grown Internal Organs-Succesful Animal Transplant
Anonymous Coward writes "Internal organs grown in the laboratory have been successfully transplanted into animals for the first time. The achievement heralds a new era in tissue engineering and transplant medicine in which patients could receive new organs made of their own cells.
Guess I don't have to quit smoking :) " Well, looks like I will be having drink(s) while watching the commercials...er..SuperBowl tonight.
BLADDERS? Whoopie FUCKING DO! When they do it with a lung, heart, or liver give me a ring.
BUT IT'S A BLADDER!! You know, a big sack that holds URINE??? As long as you can grow BLADDER CELLS you can make a BLADDER. Woopie. No structure is invovled. As long as you can culture cells of fucking course you can grow a stupid fucking bladder. This is the same thing as growing skin, something that was done more than 4 years ago.
This is orders of mangnitude easier to build a bladder than something like a liver, a heart, a pancreas, bone marrow, or lungs.
Who gives fuck about rejection? It's not replacing anything that even approaces a vital organ. I would be equally excited about duplication of hair follicles in a petri disk because that doesn't matter either. Stupid.
...So I can mount it on the side of my head and enable SMP!
Exactly... However even being able to grow bladders for transplant without fear of rejection is important... you did read that 400 million folk out there suffer from bladder disease and could benefit from a transplant.
Well...it depends
:)
I hope you either make this brain-o-wulf modular and removable, or give up reproduction by normal methods forever--hey, maybe chicks did smart guys(not) but a smart guy with a bunch of grey bubbles attached to the side of his head?
...darkharlequin..too lazy to sign on
hahahaha, this is one of the funniest threads I've read
you really need to get out more, then.
I'm NOT saying it isn't useful, I'm saying who gives a shit. This isn't a fully and newly created organ from original tissue. It's new tissue that is later integrated into the organ. I.E. so what?
Sorry that point has been missed by some many people.
There's some funny *looking* threads outside..
Especially those that wear size 80 jeans when they are clearly a size 24. (for example)
Why not just get a 'pet'?
Or how 'bout a girlfriend? (or boyfriend or whatever blows your skirt up)
You would have to rewrite all of your thought processes with PVM & MPI :)
Would you consider posting your full name so's
none of make the mistake of ever accidentally
employing you? Cheers.
...I start to wonder if you would have sworn at the Wrights brothers for creating a useless oversize kite that one can sit on. (boo hoo, afterall a hot air baloon can lift 6 people at the same time at that time)
than you would scream...if you can create jumbo jet, give me a call.
you have left and right, plus it already doing parallel thinking most of the time.
good luck doing the load balancing if you have the third side. (Manic depressive people has problem reconciling left and right brain, I heard)
so adding a third brain would certainly create problem.
a large capacity rectum. Armed with that and a professional capacity bladder, we could easily navigate most major shopping centers, and drive undaunted on the highway late at night. The large rectum would, however, require some toilet modifications.
I also want a large flap of heavy skin hanging off my neck, so I can smack people with it, and shout "Woo! Woo! Smacked yo azz with me flap o' skin!"
Posted by The Mongolian Barbecue:
Exciting new indeed! I've always wanted a dog penis, just to see how it would feel- It is encouraging to know that we are so close.
Late in the article it gingerly touched on the shaky part of the whole arena: stem cells. These "undifferentiated" proto-cells can theoretically grow into any type of cell. There are a bunch of people who would like to stop all research in this area - because the best source of stem cells is aborted fetuses.
Technology Review had an article about this in their Jul/Aug 1998 issue.
Ah, my mistake. They are harvesting them from umbilical cords and placentas.
The french were flying heavier then air devices wtih a wing shape when the wright brothers were in the craddle. (well, maybe not quite that long, but a long time) The difference is the Frech were taking 150 foot uncontrolled hops that often resulted in death.
The wright brothers managed to go from 150 foot hops (that lukily didn't kill them) in 1902 to several hour flights limited only by the fuel (capcaity and weight) in 1904.
BTW, the french then took what the wright brothers did and made it into a useful airplane, the Wright brothers built the first prototyupe, but the french refined it.
Advances don't just happen one day, typically, they start as small and simple things (like a bladder wall). Nobody said they could all retire now.
It IS an important step. After all, many important organs have a fairly simple structure. The point here is that if a bladder wall can be grown, and function in the body, how far away is a reasonably functional pancreas?
A lung would be terribly hard using a scaffolding technique. A heart will probably happen first.
Think for a moment what the heart is. A muscular sack divided into four chambers by simple valves. Add to that the sinous (sp?) nodes, and you might well have a reasonably functional heart. It would probably beat a lifetime of immune supression and the associated risks. Before that, perhaps a ventricle assist device that doesn't require a backpack full of batteries to operate.
Or more likely you'll have a mass of heart cells in the shape of the heart that cannot and won't beat like a heart because it isn't a heart.
Only if the sinous (still SP?) nodes don't work out. That's what makes the mass of cells that IS a heart beat. If all else fails, a pacemaker can supply a reasonable beat. ( Any living muscle WILL contract if stimulated by electricity). As for opening and closing valves, heart valves are passive. They are simple check valves. BTW, man made heart valves have been in use for decades.
Finally, the bladder is more than a sack. It must relax for most of the time so urine can flow in from the kidneys, and then contract as it nears capacity so the urine may be expelled. Otherwise, they'd have been replaceable with plastic years ago.
Yes, it's just a membraneous mass... yes, it's just a bladder, etc.
But it's a bladder that will survive as your own body's tissue, with NO rejection possibilities, thereby avoiding stress on your system, and allowing you to avoid those nasty anti-rejection, immunity supressing drugs... Many deaths are caused by post-operative infections. Anything to make your body achieve full health after an operation is a Very Good Thing(tm).
Bear also in mind that, nine times out of ten, one DOESN'T NEED a full organ to replace an existing one. Partial organs, specific valuable membranes, or even just sufficient mass to 'patch up' a damaged organ is a big step forward... and with the amazing advances in cloning and genetic manipulation already in progress, the day won't be far when you'll be able to plug a quarter into the heart-o-matic and have it spit out a throbbing, fully formed bundle of heart muscle at you.
--
rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)
"People will pay big bucks for the luxury of ignorance."
of meat technology--the lack of proper L2 cache for throughput.
[-- Trust the Monkey --]
This may have unwanted consiquences as well. It could push other organs to the side and for pregnant woment this could cause serious problems.
1) The organ lasted for 10 months because it was transplanted ... 10 months ago IDIOT!
2) It CAN'T be rejected. Period.
BTW what your credentials?
Who wouldn't love to double the size of their own resevoir? Instead of desperately looking for a restroom in the mall, you can wait until you get home.
Of course, the resulting flow from greater capacity may require deeper toilet bowls to prevent spillage.
Just imagine the great trajectory and distance one could gain. And you'll be able to have enough 'ink' to write more than just your name in the snow...
I don't know about you, but while I watched Atlanta get it's head handed to them, I drank beer.
:) doesn't excite you, just think about coding for 12 hours at a shot w/ your new Extenda-Bladder the 4 liter bladder for the Hacker on the go! (no more annoying bathroom breaks or catheter meltdowns!)
:)
Quite a bit of beer, ergo the need for more bladder space! How could I justify missing a single commercial, or a flubbed intereception in exchange for meeting bodily needs??
If this new field of tissue replacement (or enhancement hey?
(ingest large grain of salt at this point kids.. )
I'm actually quite glad to see any work done in the field of organ replacement, even this primitive stuff is going to lead to exciting new levels of acceptable abuse of the 'Ol meatware, and as a long time Caffeine addict I would volunteer to be the 1st for a new set of kidneys and a bigger bladder at the drop of a hat.
~Grell
"The secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: To
live dangerously!" -- Nietzsche
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
Guess what ? In Europe it takes decades to make a law about public toilets, but the guys managed to Ban this stuff already. Great - obviously not their problem all those people who die because of organs not being available for transplant. Unbelivable - do politicians know what the Yuck factor is ? they seem to be quite affected by that...at least in the old continent. It is a CNN or BCC article, but I can't find it anymore. The decision was taken by some European Commission/Council, and it affects both human and animal tsting - well, I guess they will just buy the technology from the US when their brains finally start running.
--- "I didn't think anyone would understand it" -Prof. Bob Muller
If you don't have a bladder, you have to drill a hole in your stomach and let your piss drain into a bag. I forgot what this procedure is called, but i've heard that it stinks like HELL!
A bit far from a lung or liver being grown as a complete organ.
Of course there are *lots* of places where this could be life saving technology. Even if we can't get a new liver for our glorious leader yet, we might be able to replace some of the worn out cells in the old one.
G.
silly...toilets gradually drain out as you fill them up...the way to bigger bladders has been paved for us, sieze the day!!