Going BiomimeticIn the future people who need a body part may get their

own back—regrown in the lab from their own cells.

World Life expectancy has increased dramatically. A huge part of the reason for this is the application of technology in

medicine.Organ Culture, the futuristic science of growing organs from

living cells can increase life expectancy of humans way beyond our imagination.

[1]

Organ Culture

• Organ culture is a development from tissue culture methods of research; the organ culture is able to accurately model functions of an organ in various states and conditions by the use of the actual in vitro organ itself.

• Parts of an organ or a whole organ can be cultured in vitro.

Above: The synthetic scaffold of an ear sits bathed in cartilage-producing cells, part of an effort to grow new ears for wounded soldiers. [2]

Growing Human Organs• Since 2008, eight patients have been given a new

chance at life when surgeons replaced their badly damaged tracheas with man-made versions.[3]

• In April 2006, scientists reported a successful trial of seven bladders grown in-vitro and given to humans.[4]

• A jawbone has been cultured at Columbia University, a lung has been cultured at Yale.[5]

• An artificial kidney has been cultured by H. David Humes at the University of Michigan.[6]

Artificial Urinary Bladder

• Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute developed the bladder technique for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Researchers take patient’s

cells from their bladder

Cause them to multiply in

profusely petri dishes

Apply them to a balloon-shaped scaffold partly

made of collagen

Muscle cells go on the outside, urothelial cells on the inside

The bladder-to-be is incubated at body temperature until the cells form functioning tissue

The bladder along with the biodegradable scaffold is then transplanted

[7]

Scaffold seeded with cells

[7]

Details• Cells were expanded in Dulbeccos Modified Eagles Medium

supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. Urothelial cultures were expanded with keratinocyte growth medium (Gibco).

• The cells were maintained in a humidified 5% CO2 incubator at 37°C

• Small vials of the cells were stored in a liquid nitrogen tank as backups.

• The cells and the media constituents were examined regularly for infectious agents until implantation.

• The initial size of the scaffolds used to design the patient’s bladder mould ranged from 70 cm2 to 150 cm2. [7

]

Benefits

• Bioengineered organs which rely on a patient's own cells, autologous constructs, are not subject to transplant rejection, unlike transplants from human or animal donors.

Future

Citations• [1] Health, history and hard choices: Health, history and hard choices:Funding dilemmas

in a fast-changing world - Thomson Prentice Global Health Histories - World Health Organization

• [2] The Big Idea: Organ Regeneration - National Geographic, March 2011

• [3] Manufacturing Organs - MIT Technology Review, January 16, 2014

• [4] Wake Forest Physician Reports First Human Recipients of Laboratory-Grown Organs, May 2006 - Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

• [5] Scientist Grows Jaw Bone From Adult Stem Cells by Anna Kuchment - Columbia University; Yale Scientists Implant Regenerated Lung Tissue in Rats, June 24, 2010 Yale News

• [6] Innovative Devices to Treat Kidney Failure - H. David Humes, M.D. University of Michigan; THE BIOARTIFICIAL KIDNEY - Laboratory of H. David Humes, MD.

• [7] Tissue-engineered autologous bladders for patients needing cystoplasty by Anthony Atala, Stuart B Bauer, Shay Soker, James J Yoo, Alan B Retik - Lancet 2006