On June 3rd 2015, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital announced that they had successfully grown a rat's limb in the laboratory. The limb is a functioning artificial leg that not only responds to stimuli, but also circulates blood. Dr. Harald Ott, one of the researchers, believes that this is the first step in the creation of made to order body parts for humans.
To create the new rat limb, Dr Ott and his team used a process called decellularization. In this process, the limb of a dead rat is stripped of any living cells to expose the "scaffolds," or non living parts. The limb is then recellularized by planting the cells that make up the muscles and blood vessels onto the "scaffolds". The materials were then placed in a bioreactor and allowed to grow for two weeks.
After two weeks the researchers grafted some skin on to the leg, which had no bone or cartilage. Next, the rat limb was attached to a living rat. It was found that the living rat was able to circulate its blood through the biolimb. A test of an unattached biolimb revealed that the muscles moved normally. With electrical stimulation, the rat limb's paw clenched and unclenched with 80% of the strength of a newborn animal.
Dr Ott and his team believe that this process can also be used to grow biolimbs for humans. The technique of using a recipient's own genetic material has already been used to build synthetic human bladders, windpipes, and other organs. These organs, however, are simple in comparison to limbs, which contain nerves, muscles, and blood vessels, and are required to perform in a complex manner.
If biolimbs for humans comes to fruition, they will look, and respond like the real thing. And, because they will be made from the recipients own cells, the chances of rejection are unlikely.
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