Kidney grown in lab successfully transplanted into animal

Functioning kidney built from newborn rat cells is a major step towards personalised transplant organs for peopleScientists have grown a kidney in a laboratory and shown that it works when implanted into a living animal. The work is an important step towards the longer-term goal of growing personalised replacement organs that could be transplanted into people with kidney failure.More than 51,000 people are treated every year in the UK for end-stage kidney failure and 90% of those are on the waiting list for organs are waiting for kidneys. A shortage of organs means that every year fewer than 3,000 transplants are carried out, however, while more than 3,000 people die waiting for a transplant.There is no cure for kidney failure. The only available treatments – dialysis or receiving a transplant – just buy a patient more time but come with considerable limitations on quality of life. A patient on dialysis is advised to drink less than a litre of fluid per day, for example. And kidney transplants only last between 10 to 15 years on average, in addition to any complications caused by immune rejection.Finding a new source of replacement organs that could be grown using the patient's own cells and that could last a lifetime would, therefore, be a big leap forward.In the latest work, Harald Ott of Massachusetts General hospital led a team of scientists who grew a kidney by using an experimental technique that has previously been used to create working hearts, lungs and livers.Ot...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Tissue engineering World news Health guardian.co.uk Medical research Society UK news Science Source Type: news