Rat Limb Grown in the Lab

Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 10 months ago to Science
39 comments | Share | Flag

Now this is a true game changer. Can you imagine?

From the article:
"When electrically stimulated, the muscle fibers contracted with a strength 80 percent of what would be seen in newborn animals. What’s more, the blood vessels filled with blood.

“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,” said Harald Ott, MD, of the MGH Department of Surgery and the Center for Regenerative Medicine and senior author of the research paper, which appeared in this week’s journal Biomaterial."

God, I love science and research.


All Comments

  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I will trade you: I will take the snakes if you take the spiders. Neither of us want the scorpions.

    (Killed a rattlesnake over the weekend. A friend of mine cooked it (Since I was working on a dog-run/chicken-coop project; I had killed it outside her front door, and she cut its head off with garden shears.) - she barbecued it. She says that next time she will use oil instead of a dry rub since it is wild meat. It was better than the last rattlesnake I killed, which was skinny and stringy, but I think she is right about the oil. The builder who was with us when this happened was rather bemused.)

    Jan, likes snakes...sometimes sauteed
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  • Posted by 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Now snakes and scorpions are going just too far. A large part of my family's from McDonald County, MO which in the early and mid 1800's was known as 'Snake County' to everyone that had been there. The scorpions and big black and orange centipedes were just as bad. Now I'm going to have nightmares again. I just hope it's not that damn hand.
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  • Posted by khalling 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Non mooch hates spiders too. I 'll keep spiders if I can make snakes go away.....also scorpions
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  • Posted by 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I had hands everywhere, creeping over the back of the couch, under the bed, through the window, under the foot of the blanket. And I despise spiders.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    jbrenner can address "spray skin" -- he is doing
    some work which is quite similar, if my memory
    is working. -- j
    .
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    UHHh. I remember that - could not sleep for 3 nights. My parents blasted my elder sister out for watching it.

    I think that movie is one of the reasons I am 'spider adverse'...

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Those are on backorder, Sir. Could I interest you in a pair of sporty grey Peregrins?

    Jan
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  • Posted by 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The Hand. One of the very first horror movies I saw in the late 50's. A cutoff hand that was alive and crept up on people.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, I think it is. Imagine the kid with a cancerous limb.

    I wonder when someone's going to tackle new skin for a burn victim or an old man's wrinkles?
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You need a kick from a 3D printed limb?
    or
    You need a good news tidbit?

    I am having a good time imagining a disembodied leg chasing you around the house every morning, trying to boot you in the butt.

    Jan, entertained
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  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This procedure requires the infrastructure of the dead animal (or the dead limb that's separated from the body), and all the material removed other than the substrate. Then new cells are introduced on that substrate to create what appears to be a working limb. If this is combined with 3D printing, we might have a serious breakthrough.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 10 months ago
    this is amazing! . I need one of these to kick-start me
    in the morning!!! -- j
    .
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  • Posted by 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No, I'm not intolerant. I have a rule on my posts that going off thread on my Posts, I will give two warnings, then hide future comments.

    If you wish to talk about supernatural phenomena somehow demonstrated by science, please do so on your own posts. This post concerns the significant accomplishment of some scientists using knowledge of scientific reality and scientific experiments confirming that reality to advance the knowledge and abilities of man.

    This is strike two.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    In my case --- Way too late, and probably too late for my son. Grandchildren, however.....
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