Healthy Outlook Blog

As I told you yesterday when I first blogged about this, the emerging field of regenerative medicine aims to replace lost limbs, eyes and organs as well as to correct birth defects. Amazingly, this is actually happening (although experts say we’re still a long way from routinely replaceable body parts).

But consider those kids with the new bladders. A tissue sample about half the size of a postage stamp was taken from their old ones, mixed with stuff called growth factors that stimulate cell growth and reproduction and layered into a scaffold the same size and shape as each kid’s original bladder. After six to eight weeks in an incubator that reproduces conditions inside the human body, the regenerated organ was ready for implantation. Once in place, the scaffold degrades gradually, leaving the brand new bladder. Each of the kids has been followed for an average of seven years, and their bladders are still working just fine.

“We know that many parts of the human body are able to regenerate. Our goal is to enhance that function to treat certain injuries and illnesses,” says Anthony Atala, M.D., director of Wake Forest University’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine where the kids’ bladders were made.

Who knew?

When you think about it, the demand for replaceable parts has got to be huge. Not only all the folks who have been injured in accidents and on the battlefield, but all of those with diabetes or kidney, liver or heart failure. Dr. Atala also lists the need for replacement bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons plus burn patients who need new skin.

At Wake Forest they’re working on regeneration of more than 22 different types of organs and tissues.

Now for that regrown finger: you can actually see a picture in a video presentation by Stephen Badylak, M.D., director of Tissue Engineering at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The guy who lost a bit of his finger was a hobbyist who had an accident with the propeller of a model plane. His brother knew about Dr. Badylak’s work with extracellular matrix, the material that holds cells together. Some of the stuff was used on the finger and the digit grew back. “We thought it was a fluke,” says Dr. Badylak. Nope. Now servicemen and women who have lost part of a finger are being treated with the matrix. The whole digit doesn’t come back – but adding between six and 10 millimeters of length can improve the functionality of a finger.

You may call it science, but it seems like magic to me.

CONNECT THE DOTS

Want to know more? You can watch a video presentation by Dr. Atala here. And read more about what’s happening at the McGowan Institute at the University of Pittsburgh here.