Small Steps Towards Tissue Engineered Lungs

From a starting point of a few cells, researchers can at present build small amounts of at least partially functional tissue for a range of organs, including lungs. These are known as organoids, limited in size because reliable methods of generating the blood vessel networks needed to support larger tissues have yet to be developed. For some organs, those that largely act as filters or chemical factories, it is possible that organoids alone can have significant therapeutic value: transplant many of them at once and let them integrate into a damaged organ to augment its function, for example. For organs like the lung, however, where overall structure is important, there is further to go. The leap must be made from organoids to, at minimum, large and properly structured tissue sections. Meanwhile, the existence of organoids does allow researchers to gain valuable experience in tissue engineering, and to refine the outcomes achieved to date. That is important. This is a journey of many small steps: Researchers have transplanted lab-grown mini lungs into immunosuppressed mice where the structures were able to survive, grow and mature. "In many ways, the transplanted mini lungs were indistinguishable from human adult tissue." Respiratory diseases account for nearly 1 in 5 deaths worldwide, and lung cancer survival rates remain poor despite numerous therapeutic advances during the past 30 years. The numbers highlight the need for new, physiologically relevant models for tr...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs