Scientists in Scotland released a report that day have been successful in growing a whole, functional organ from scratch using the inside of an animal as a medium. The scientists were able to propagate a group of cells, which subsequently developed into a thymus, after being transplanted into the test animal's body. The results that they produce are promising, and the scientists are hopeful that this would be the beginning of one of many scientific studies that could produce an alternative to organ transplantation. The thymus organ, in humans, is located near the heart and is responsible for producing T-cells that helps the body fight infection.
The team from the Medical Research Council Center For Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh harvested the cells from the embryo of their animal subject and genetically reprogrammed these cells to transform them into the same type of cells that are found in the thymus. These were then aggregated with supplemental cells and implanted inside the animal's body where it developed into a fully functional organ that had the two main structural regions, and produced the essential T-cells.
Professor Clara Blackburn from the research team said that this development is "tremendously exciting." She went on to say that, "this is a very exciting advance and is also very tantalizing in terms of the wider field of regenerative medicine." And, although the scientists are very optimistic about the discovery, there is still a long way to go before the research can be moved up to actual hospital therapy. One such obstacle is that, in the experiment, scientists used embryos, which, for humans, could mean that the tissues between the donor and the patient may not match. Researchers must also be able to ensure that the transplanted cells will not grow uncontrollably in the post body and produce cancer.
But despite these hovering issues, the results of this study are groundbreaking and could create immense possibilities in the field of regenerative medicine. Prof. Robin Lovell-Badge said that, "This is an important achievement both for demonstrating how to make an organ, albeit a relatively simple one; and because of the critical role of the thymus in developing a proper functioning immune system. [However] The methods are unlikely to be easy to translate to human patients."