Rat bio limb grown in a lab
Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston have grown the fist bio rat limb with muscles and blood vessels.
According to the scientists, this is one of the first steps towards developing bioartificial replacement limbs that could be used for human transplantation.
Harald Ott, senior author of the findings and MGH Department of Surgery and the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, said that the biological nature of our limbs makes building a functional biological limb replacement a challenge.
‘Limbs contain muscles, bone, cartilage, blood vessels, tendons, ligaments and nerves – each of which has to be rebuilt and requires a specific supporting structure called the matrix,’ said Ott.
“We have shown that we can maintain the matrix of all of these tissues in their natural relationships to each other, that we can culture the entire construct over prolonged periods of time, and that we can repopulate the vascular system and musculature,” says Ott.
However, it will take some years before a human bio limb becomes a reality.
Written by: Dr. Ajay Sati.
