Scientists grow a rat lung in the laboratory

[Ed Barrow]

It's an early step toward one day building new lungs: Yale University researchers took apart and regrew a rat's lung, and then transplanted it and watched it breathe.

The lung stayed in place only for an hour or two, as the scientists measured it exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide much like a regular lung -- but also spotted some problems that will take more research to fix.

Still, the work is a step in the science fiction-sounding hunt for ways to regenerate damaged lungs -- although lead researcher Dr. Laura Niklason cautions that it may be 20 or 25 years before a build-a-new-organ approach is ready for people.

...

The biggest challenge: For this approach ever to work without a person's body rejecting the new tissue, scientists would need to use a recipient's own cells, Niklason explained. But there isn't a way yet to cull the kind of personalized stem cells that would be needed, meaning stem cell research must improve first, she said.


http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/06/24/scientists_grow_a_rat_lung_in_the_laboratory/

[customerserviceguy]

1. At least there's finally hope

for all those rats who were forced to participate in those cigarette studies decades ago.

[trotsky]

2. LOL

Well played. :thumbsup: