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Envisioning Regrowth of Organs
(Wednesday July 21 2010)
 | From CBC News: "Scientists in Toronto are trying to crack the secrets of regeneration to trigger the human body to grow tissues and organs damaged by disease. In his lab at Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Ian Rogers is working on a replacement pancreas that would be grown in a lab and then placed in those with Type 1 diabetes to restore their insulin production. ... At this stage, Rogers's team is building a pancreas out of a surgical sponge, a three-dimensional structure seeded with insulin-producing islet cells. The pancreas would be grown in the lab and then placed under the skin of those with Type 1 diabetes to restore their insulin production. But making a pancreas is complicated, Rogers said. The most advanced research at his lab is simpler: regenerating blood vessels so people with Type 2 - or adult onset - diabetes who have damaged fingers and toes can avoid amputation. In theory, any condition where cells are damaged - from insulin-producing cells in diabetes to brain cells in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, to retina cells in blindness, to damaged areas in the heart - could one day be repaired. ... If we can find a way to replace these cells back in to where it's missing, we can envision a cure for these diseases which are currently devastating." |
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