| Laboratory-engineered Bladders Successfully Implanted |
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In a significant study the US researchers say that the seven patients in the US have been given the first laboratory-engineered bladders whose own organs were defective. The new bladders have been grown from a patient’s own cells and successfully implanted into children.
The procedures took place at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts where researchers have rebuilt the defective bladders of seven young patients aged between four and 19 using the patients’ own cells, marking the first time that tissue engineering has reconstructed a complicated internal organ in humans.
Children’s Hospital Boston is a 342-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care. As one of the biggest pediatric medical centers in the United States, it offers a complete range of health care services for children from birth through 21 years of age. The Hospital has been a leader in child healthcare for more than 130 years.
To reconstruct the bladder tissue, the team did the diagnostic test of cells taken from the muscle and lining of the bladder walls in individual patients. These cells were cultivated in the laboratory, and then seeded onto a specially constructed, biodegradable mould, shaped like a bladder.
Dr. Robert S. Langer, a tissue-engineering innovator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called the work ’’a really nice clinical milestone." Before this innovation only skin, bone and cartilage have been grown in laboratories.
Researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, say that producing tissue from a person’s cells eradicates the risk of failure. They also wish lab-produced tissue will one day allay the shortage of donor organs accessible for transplant.
The number of people who are standing in a queue for donor organs in Britain is around 6,700 but the number of organs available has dropped as a result of improved road safety and lesser accidents. A sum of 2,180 transplants was carried out last year, according to UK Transplant centre.
An official from UK Transplant, the NHS organization which provides support to transplant services, said the invention provided hope for the future. The centre has requested people to continue signing up to the NHS organ donor register.
NHS Blood and Transplant was established on 1 October 2005. On 22 July 2004 the Department of Health announced its proposals to form a new organization, NHS Blood and Transplant, to which the functions of UK Transplant, the National Blood Service and BPL were transferred in October 2005.
Dr. Anthony Atala, a leading researcher said, "This is one small step in our ability to go forward in replacing damaged tissues and organs." Dr Atala is now making efforts to develop 20 varied tissues and organs including blood vessels and hearts, in the laboratory.
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