Stem Cell Good News

April 4, 2006

(via Washington Post)
Scientists have succeeded in growing new bladders in the lab and have transplanted them into seven patients.

The team started by taking biopsy specimens about half the size of a postage stamp from each patient’s malfunctioning bladder. After teasing apart the cells in that bit of tissue and discarding the collagen, the researchers grew the muscle and urothelium cells in separate dishes for about a week.

They then seeded those cells onto spongelike biodegradable “scaffolds” made of synthetic polymer and collagen. Each scaffold was custom-designed to fit inside the patient.

Over about seven weeks in an incubator, the cells colonized the scaffold — urothelium inside and muscle out. Surgeons then stitched the bladders into place just above the patients’ old ones. There the organs continued to grow and reconfigure themselves.

So why is this good stem cell news? Because, “it now appears that at least some tissues, and even whole organs, can be generated without using the cells [embryonic stem cells] at all.”