Tissue Engineering Opens the Door to Replacement Organs
Organ transplant is fast becoming a demand in the field of medicine and health. Some fifty years ago, the first ever kidney transplant was successfully performed, paving the way for the development and further research of the transplantation of other organs other than kidneys. Nowadays, hospital administrations can only tell you that awaiting organs for possible replacement can take years. The demand for organs in fast surpassing the supply, so researchers are trying to determine if it is possible to create new organs in the laboratory.
Only in this day and age can producing human organs from scratch can be done, with the advent and improvement of technology such as the tissue culture microscope and stem cell research. However, the day a physician can “order” an organ may still be years and years away, but this does not stop scientists from trying. Who knows, their research can be the foundation to spark a breakthrough in medical science as we know it today.
Anthony Atala from the Children’s Hospital in Boston has done some impressive experiments regarding this topic. With the use of biodegradable matter and a patient’s cells, he and his colleagues managed to produce functioning organs. Some of these have even been tested with actual patients.
These creations are aptly called bioartificial organs and the US Food and Drug Administration is already looking into approving one of their productions, the urethra, as a transplantable organ. With this kind of support, Atala is motivated to move his research further. He spoke at the Annual Conference on Regenerative Medicine in Washington, D.C., and explained that he and his colleagues are preparing to test a bioartificial bladder in humans. At the moment, they are testing organs like the kidney and uterus in animals. When you decipher his concept, it appears to be quite straightforward. An artificial structure, molded through a tissue culture microscope and made with biodegradable matter, is seeded with the patient’s own set of cells and then transferred into the patient.
The crucial part that will deem the transplant a relative success is that the blood supply is sufficient to allow the cells to thrive, making the organ viable as it grows into the mold. In time, since the mold is biodegradable, this ultimately degrades and hopefully a functioning organ will remain. The most challenging part for Atala was trying to determine how to culture the cells and stimulate them to grow.
He states he can now take a piece of tissue the size of a square centimeter, and under the magnification of a tissue culture microscope, place them in culture mediums that can spawn enough cells to encompass an entire football field in eight weeks. Atala has made a name for himself as a pioneer and a theorist in creating bioartificial organs for transplantation.
Atala also says that they are not hurrying with the experiments in order to satisfy the need. The step-by-step measures he and his colleagues are taking allow this medical wonder to proceed in a safe and thorough manner. It is only essential that they take their time, determining long term complications or side effects bioartificial transplantations may cause.
